Apprentices: Taxation

(asked on 16th May 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of extending (a) the number of SMEs to which unspent apprenticeship levy digital vouchers can be transferred to by larger firms and (b) the proportion of unspent digital vouchers that can be transferred.


Answered by
Anne Milton Portrait
Anne Milton
This question was answered on 21st May 2018

In England, we do not use digital vouchers. Employers that pay the apprenticeship levy use funds in their apprenticeship service accounts to pay for training and assessment and to transfer to other employers. The amount of funds they receive does not depend on where in the UK their headquarters or apprenticeship programmes are based but reflects the amount of levy they have declared and the percentage of their workforce based in England. The government then tops this up by 10%. Employers can spend these funds on English apprenticeships as long as the apprentice is based in England for at least 50% of their work. For apprentices based elsewhere in the UK, employers should contact the relevant funding bodies in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, who each operate their own apprenticeship programmes.

Employers with apprenticeship service accounts will see funds expire 24 months after they appear in accounts unless they are used on apprenticeship training. 24 months was set to encourage employers to plan and spend in good time whilst also giving them time to adapt and develop their apprenticeship programmes following the reforms introduced in May 2017.

Levy-paying employers can now transfer up to 10% of their apprenticeship service funds to other employers. We are carefully monitoring the implementation of transfers, including how the 10% limit is working.

We do not anticipate that all levy-paying employers will spend all the funds in their apprenticeship service accounts. Unspent funds will be used to support levy-paying employers who spend more than the funds available in their accounts and to fund training for non-levy payers.

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