The apprenticeship levy explained
The Apprenticeship Levy started on the 6th of April 2017. Since then, employers in any sector with an annual payroll of over £3 million have to pay a Levy charged at a rate of 0.5% of annual payroll.
This is estimated at only 2% of businesses in England will pay the Levy. The levy is collected monthly and is paid to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) through the Pay as You Earn (PAYE) process.
You can spend your apprenticeship levy using your Digital Apprenticeship Service account and monies can only be used to fund approved apprenticeships. All NowSkills apprenticeships are approved and eligible to be funded with apprenticeship levy monies view the Digital Apprenticeship Service.
Your available Levy funds will be adjusted to reflect the proportion of your English based employees. The UK government also uplift your available funds by 10%, for example, if you pay £1,000 into your levy account, you will have £1,100 available to send.
Your levy funds will have an expiration date of 24 months, and any unused funds will be claimed by HM Treasury.
If levy-paying employers spend all their levy funds, the proportion of the costs not covered will automatically receive 95% funding. This process is automated and NowSkills will invoice these employers for 5% of the outstanding balance. For example, if £8,000 is unfunded, the employer will pay £400 to cover this cost.