Apprentices: Taxation

(asked on 20th June 2019) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much apprenticeship levy was paid by levy employers in (a) May 2017 and expired in April 2019 and (b) June 2017 and expired in May 2019 because the funds had not been used.


Answered by
Anne Milton Portrait
Anne Milton
This question was answered on 28th June 2019

When employers pay the Apprenticeship Levy, their contribution (as well as a 10% top up) is made available to them via the digital apprenticeship service to spend on apprenticeships in England.

We recognise that employers want and need flexibility. Employers have 24 months to spend their levy and levy-paying employers can transfer 25% of funds to other employers.

The amount of funds entering employers’ digital apprenticeship service accounts in May 2017 was £135 million, of which £11 million in unspent funds expired in May 2019. This was the first month of expiry of funds. The amount of funds entering employer’ accounts in June 2017 was £152 million, for which the expiry of unspent funds will occur at the end of June 2019.

These figures are for employers in England and include the 10% government top up. The proportion of an employer’s levy contributions made available as funds in their digital apprenticeship service account depends on how many of their employees live in England and the proportion of their pay bill paid to these employees.

Unspent funds are used to support existing apprenticeships learners, levy paying employers who spend more than the funds available in their accounts and to fund training for non-levy paying employers.

We do not currently intend to publish expiry of funds information on a monthly basis.

Reticulating Splines