Now you’re paying the apprenticeship levy, you’ll want to be sure you’re getting the best training possible for your organisation.

At DBC, we work with employers to design and deliver training programmes that are perfectly suited to their needs. Whether you’re looking to take on brand new apprentices, or develop your in-house training, get in touch to find out how. How does the levy work? As an employer with an annual pay bill of more than ￡3 million, you pay 0.5% of this towards the apprenticeship levy through PAYE each month. You have an allowance of ￡15,000 throughout the year, which accumulates in amounts of ￡1,250 each month, reducing the amount you need to pay towards the levy. As well as the allowance, the government tops up your levy payments by 10% in your digital apprenticeship service account. So, for every ￡1 you pay towards the levy, this will become ￡1.10.How do you use the apprenticeship levy? You’ll use your levy funds through your government apprenticeship service account. This is where you’ll receive your allowance and make payments for training. Companies will have 24 months to make use of their apprenticeship funds. To get started, get in touch with us and we’ll guide you through your next steps. If you are in a group of companies paying the levy together, your group can collect funds in a single account. As of April This year , the Government plan to allow levy-paying employers to transfer up to 10% of funds entering their apprenticeship service account to other employers. They can transfer funds to any employers or apprenticeship training agency. What if you want to spend more than you have in your account? When you’d like to benefit from more apprenticeships than your account will currently fund, you’ll move onto ‘co-investment’. This is where the government funds 90% of your apprenticeship training and assessment costs, and you pay the other 10%. What if you don’t need to pay the levy? If your annual pay bill is less than ￡3 million and you’d like to benefit from apprenticeships in your organisation, you’ll fund this through co-investment. This is where you’ll contribute 10% to the costs of training and assessing your apprentices, and the government will fund the rest. For smaller companies with fewer than 50 employees, the government will pay all the costs for new apprentices aged 16 to 18 and those aged 19 to 24 who are leaving care or have a Local Authority and Healthcare plan. If you’re a non-levy paying employer, you won’t be able to register for an apprenticeship service account until at least 2018, so you will need to agree on a payment schedule with the provider and pay them directly until then. What can you use the levy for? You can use your levy funds for apprenticeship training and assessment for apprentices who work in England for at least 50% of the time. The levy covers your apprentice’s training and assessment within the scope of the framework or standard they’re following, and not things like wages and expenses. If the costs of training and assessment exceed the funding band maximum, you will need to pay the difference from your own budget.

Please get in touch for more information on [email protected]

01332 295588