For Employers

Before you can set up your account, you’ll need to identify the person in your organisation who has access to your government gateway account. It’s usually someone in payroll. You’ll also need the details of all of your PAYE schemes.

If you have a complex corporate structure, there is more detailed guidance that you should definitely read, https://www.gov.uk/guidance/manage-apprenticeship-funds.

Finally, our team is here to help so if you get stuck, give us a call on 0203 884 8816

While the levy is set at 0.5% of an employer’s gross annual pay bill, employers have an allowance of £15,000. So if an employer has a pay bill of £10 million, they will end up paying an annual fee of:

£10 million x 0.5% - £15,000 = £35,000

The levy allowance operates on a monthly basis and accumulates throughout the year. This means you have an allowance of £1,250 a month. Any unused allowance is carried from one month to the next.

The total levy amount is collected monthly by HMRC, and the funding is then made available to employers via a digital account, through which they can pay for training for apprentices. If an employer does not spend their entire levy amount on apprenticeships, then the unspent portion will be made available to other employers to spend on apprenticeships.

If you are part of a group of employers, you must decide what proportion of the levy allowance each employer in the group will be entitled to. This decision must be taken at the beginning of the tax year and will be fixed for that tax year. Each employer will then calculate what they have to pay through the same processes set out above, but using their portion of the £15,000 allowance.

Any apprenticeship levy payment to HMRC is an allowable deduction for Corporation Tax purposes.

Your pay bill will be based on the total amount of earnings subject to National Insurance Contributions. Essentially, any person who is on your payroll and paid through PAYE is included in your pay bill. Earnings include any remuneration or profit coming from employment, such as pay, bonuses, commissions, and pension contributions that you pay National Insurance on.

Visit our page on the Apprenticeship Levy here for more information!

If your company has an annual payroll of over £3m per annum, then you will be a levy paying employer and you’ll need to register for a Digital Apprenticeship Service Account. If you are unsure, check with someone in your finance or payroll team.

Funds in your digital account can only be used towards the costs of apprenticeship training and spent with an approved training provider.

They cannot be used to pay for other costs associated with your apprentices or wider training effort e.g. pay, statutory licenses to practice, travel and subsidiary costs, managerial costs, or the costs of establishing an apprenticeship programme.

Employers are able to transfer 25% of the funds in their digital account to other employers in their supply chains or sector to be used on their own apprenticeship training.

Some employers paying the levy may find that the funds in their digital account aren’t enough to cover the full cost of training all the apprentices they want to employ.

In order to support further apprenticeship delivery, the government will contribute 95% of the total costs of the additional delivery.

The government will apply a 10% top-up to your levy account for spending on apprenticeship training in England. They apply the top-up monthly, at the same time the funds enter your digital account. So for every £1 that enters your digital account to spend on apprenticeship training, you will get £1.10. Funds (including top-ups) expire 24 months after they enter your digital account unless you spend them on apprenticeship training.

If you do not pay the levy, you will be able to reserve funding on the Digital Apprenticeship Service to pay for apprenticeship training and assessment.

The government will make a contribution of 95% to the cost of this training.

All employers are exempt from paying national insurance contributions for apprentices who are under 25 and undertaking a statutory apprenticeship.

If you are a small employer and you employ an apprentice who is 16 to 18 years old, then you’ll be entitled to a grant of £1,000. We will pay this to you in two instalments – the first three months after your apprentice starts and the second after 12 months.

Every apprenticeship standard is placed in a funding band, which set the maximum amount of funding that can be used towards training costs over the length of the apprenticeship. The same funding bands apply to all employers paying for apprenticeships.

LDN Apprentices undertake a range of different apprenticeship qualifications and levels. Please refer to the programmes page on our website here for more information.

We advise that you issue your apprentice a permanent contract but where you issue a fixed term contract, the contract will need to cover the duration of the apprenticeship.

Apprentices will attend monthly Live Sessions delivered online via Teams. Live Sessions will always follow the same day/week e.g., the second Thursday of the month and this will be confirmed in the onboarding email.

Your apprentice may also be invited to in-person Development Days at our offices in London.

Apprentices who need to complete Functional Skills (maths and English) qualifications will require at least a couple of days out of the office for each qualification. The Skills Coach will always book these in advance and at a time that is convenient for you.

Your apprentice will also need time away from the office to complete their end-point assessment. This varies by apprenticeship - please ask one of the LDN team for further information.

Yes. By law, apprentices must be paid for time spent working as well as time spent in training.

We recommend a minimum starting salary of £18,000. You’re more than welcome to pay them more than that if your budget allows it, or if you are a London Living Wage Employer. After the first year of their apprenticeship, you should ensure that they are paid the minimum wage for their age group. Further information on national minimum rates can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/national-minimum-wage-rates

If you would like LDN Apprenticeships to recruit an apprentice for you, we do charge a recruitment fee.

There is a recruitment fee of £750 +VAT for Level 3 standards or £950 +VAT for Level 4 and Level 5 standards that we will invoice on the apprentice’s first day of work with you, there is a free replacement if the apprentice leaves within the first month of employment.

If you recruit the apprentice yourselves, we can help advertise your role for free! There is no recruitment fee for this or when placing an existing member of staff onto the programme.

If your company has a payroll over £3m per annum, then you will pay for apprenticeship training from the apprenticeship Levy funds in your digital account. If the funds in your account run out, the government will cover 95% of the surplus cost, and you’ll need to contribute 5%.

If your company has a payroll below £3m per annum, and you have reserved funding through your digital account, the government will cover 95% of the cost of training, and you will need to pay the remaining 5%. The 5% will be invoiced upfront once the apprentice has been inducted onto the apprenticeship.

We collect payments from Employers by Direct Debit, either on the 1st or 15th of each month. We will always send you an invoice prior to collecting payment. All payments are protected by the Direct Debit

No. Many apprentices only receive and increase once they’ve completed first year of apprenticeship and go on to a second year of study, or into a full-time job. But you are very welcome and encouraged to reward your apprentice for good performance – if that reward comes in the form of a salary increase, that’s great!

Non-levy employers that have paid upfront: You will receive a pro-rated refund depending on how many completed months remain e.g., if your apprentice leaves halfway through month 6, you will receive a refund for months 7-12 (50%).

Non-levy employers that pay monthly: LDN will stop any future invoices and issue a credit note for the month the apprentice leaves if they leave employment before the 15th of the month.

Levy employers: Future levy payments will stop, but you may receive a refund to your levy pot depending on the actual end date of the apprentice. LDN uses evidence of learning (signed coaching session or learner journal) for the actual end date. LDN will confirm this date with you for you to add a stopped date for the apprentice on ASA.

74% of our apprentices complete their training and achieve their qualifications. Of those, 70% are offered permanent employment with their apprenticeship employer. This is significantly higher than the national average, and a statistic that we’re very proud of!