Transferring Levy

Transfer your unused Apprenticeship Levy

Every business with a payroll of £3m is paying in but not everyone is taking advantage of the funding. In 2019 employers contributed a total of £3bn but only spent £800m between them on apprenticeship training.

Where is the unclaimed £2.2bn and who can use it?

The good news is, it doesn’t have to go unclaimed – even if your business has no plans to use it yourself. You can transfer up to 25% of your Levy fund to another business to help with their apprenticeship training. It’s quite simple and why wouldn’t you?

You can choose any employer within your supply chain, a business you work with or a customer’s business, or just a business in your area who you think could benefit.

We can help – can you?

We’re experts at helping businesses transfer their unused Levy funds – and helping them connect with businesses within the food and drink industry, who could use the money to boost their own apprenticeship programme. A small amount of effort from you could have a huge impact on another smaller business, and help our whole industry succeed.

And as well as feeling good about yourselves that you’ve helped the next generation of talent, you’ll boost your own reputation and tick those CSR boxes.

Please get in touch and let us help you help others.

How to transfer your unused Levy

Don’t let a little thing like filling in a few online forms stop you from transferring your unused Levy funds and helping another business.

There are no restrictions about who you can transfer it to – a business you already know or let us help you find one who could really benefit from a boost to their own apprenticeship budget.

The only conditions are, you can only transfer 25% of your Levy, they have to spend the funds under the same rules as everyone else, and they can’t spend it on training that you provide.

Billions went unused last year – let’s work together to ensure the money goes where it’s needed most.

Things to consider:

Transferring funds:

You can only transfer funds or receive transfers – you can play both sides.
If their apprenticeship stops, your agreement stops automatically.
You can only transfer up to 25% of the previous year’s annual account funds – any unspent funds over 12 months old are not eligible for transfer.

Receiving funds:

You must spend the funds on the apprenticeship you agreed to
If you stop the apprenticeship, the payments stop automatically – you won’t have to repay any funds.
You can’t spend your funds with the same businesses you received them from – but you can still use them for other apprenticeships.

Step 1: The terms

Everyone must agree on the terms of the transfer – including the specific Apprenticeship Standard, the costs and the timescales.

Step 2: Connecting accounts

Both parties must set up an Apprenticeship Service account – and follow the simple steps to connect them.

Step 3: Training providers

The employer receiving the transfer then chooses a training provider in line with everything agreed in step 1.

Step 4: Approval and transfer

Once approved, the funding will be transferred directly to the training provider.

Receiving a levy transfer

If you’re a business looking for funding support at The National Skills Academy we make it as simple as possible for you to find other businesses looking to transfer levy, and help facilitate a transfer with ease.

Employers who want to receive a transfer

If you want to receive a transfer from another employer you must be aware of the following:

you can only use the transferred funds for Apprenticeship training and assessment
transferred funds can only be used for Apprenticeship standards
you’ll need to create an account on the Apprenticeship service to receive the transfer and pay for Apprenticeship training
you’ll need to sign an agreement with the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA)
transfer payments will be made monthly from the sending employer to your Apprenticeship account
you won’t have to pay any funds back to the sending employer
if the employer sending you funds runs out of funds, you must make a 5% contribution to the cost of Apprenticeship training and the government will pay the remaining 95% (this is called co-investment)
a transfer can fund up to the funding band maximum of a standard, if the cost of training is more, you’ll have to pay the difference to the training provider
if a training provider transfers funds to you, they cannot deliver the training for that funded Apprenticeship

State aid

10% of all the funds you receive as a transfer from another employer count as state aid.
So that you do not go over the allowed limit of €200,000 for state aid in any 3 year period, you should check:

how much state aid you’ve already received
if you’re part of a connected organisation, how much combined total state aid you have received

What can the Apprenticeship Levy be spent on?

One of the mostly commonly asked questions is how Apprenticeship Levy funds can be spent.

What exactly are you allowed to spend levy funds on?

Levy funds must be spent on training employees within your organisation and end-point assessments with an approved training provider.

However, the important thing to note is the Apprenticeship Funding Rules state that the Levy cannot be spent on:

Wages
Statutory licences to practice
Travel and subsidiary costs
Managerial costs
Traineeships
Work Placement Programmes; or
The cost of setting up an apprenticeship programme.
This is partly to prevent misuse of funds, but also to ensure that all apprenticeship courses associated with the levy fund adhere to the same standards and level of quality.

Can you choose who you spend the Apprenticeship Levy with?

Yes, but there are a few rules to bear in mind:

No restrictions - There are absolutely no restrictions on who you can enrol in an apprentice scheme, whether it is an existing employee of any age, an experienced prospect that you’re bringing on board, or a school or college leaver. The person you choose may even have already completed an apprenticeship as long as their new apprenticeship doesn’t contain the same knowledge, skills and behaviours, they can do another one.
Selecting your provider - The only thing you need to be mindful of is the database of approved apprenticeship course providers that the Government has put together, this is call RoATP.
Transferring levy funds - Legislation has allowed larger businesses to pass their levy funds to smaller businesses along their supply chain. These businesses don’t necessarily have to be related, but the only catch is that the giver and recipient of the funds must be in agreement over which apprenticeship courses the funds will be allocated to.

If you are looking for funds to support apprenticeship delivery in your business please get in touch with us at levytransfer@nsafd.co.uk.