Employers that pay the apprenticeship levy

Employers with a payroll bill of more than £3 million, must pay the apprenticeship levy. You can manage funds using the apprenticeship service and spend it on the apprenticeship part of your workforce planning. You can use it to cover training and assessment of your apprentices.

The government will apply a 10% top up to the funds you have in your account. If you do not have enough funds, you will pay an additional 5% of the outstanding balance, and the government will pay the rest. This is up to the maximum funding band allocated to each specific apprenticeship.

If you exceed the maximum funding band, you’ll need to pay all the additional costs.

If you do not already have an account, you’ll first need to create an apprenticeship service account

Transferring unused funds to another employer

If you have unused apprenticeship funds, you can transfer them to another employer using the apprenticeship service. This will support them to pay for apprenticeship training and assessment.

You can find employers who want to receive a transfer by:

  • working with employers in your supply chain
  • getting in touch with employers in your industry
  • contacting an apprenticeship training agency (ATA)
  • working with regional partners.

You can transfer a maximum of 25% of your levy funds.