Northern Skills Group - The Levy and what you need to know

THE APPRENTICESHIP LEVY What you need to know

If you are an employer with an annual salary bill of over £3 million, you will now be paying the apprenticeship levy. This levy is set at 0.5% of your overall salary bill and is used to invest in apprenticeship training throughout England. This model is applicable to all businesses, and each one receives a £15,000 digital allowance to offset against their payment. Those liable to pay the levy must report so on a monthly basis and pay their contribution via the PAYE process – at the same time as they do tax and earnings-related contributions.

In order to access your digital allowance you’ll need to:

Create an account

Add your organisation(s)

Add your PAYE schemes

Add members to your account to use the service

In order to link your PAYE schemes to your digital account you will need to have your Government Gateway login details to hand. If you do not have this we would advise speaking with a member of your finance department as they may need to set up the account on your behalf. Any confidential information will not be viewable or accessible by whoever enters the Government Gateway login details.

You will also need to include details of each organisation that will be making an agreement with a training provider for apprenticeship training, this will include the Companies House or charity number if applicable.

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Registering Multiple Organisations If your organisation is part of multiple connected companies or charities you will need to add each organisation to your account.

This will only be organisations who are in an agreement with a training provider to deliver apprenticeship training. There are no restrictions on the number of connected companies or charities you can add to your account however a single PAYE scheme cannot be linked to multiple accounts.

For example, you will not be able to create three separate accounts for three organisations and link them to the same PAYE scheme, instead you will need to create one account and add the three connected organisations to it.

My account is active, now what?

After creating your account, the balance for any declared levy will be visible in your account in the following month. For example if you have declared levy for May 2017, you will see the balance for this at the end of June 2017.

Soon after setting up your account, you will also receive a notification to accept an agreement from the ESFA (The Education and Skills Funding Agency). Please accept this as soon as possible as this will impact on your permissions, once accepted you will be able to update information about training or apprentices, authorise payments and view payment activity.

Northern Skills Group’s specialist team can work with you to plan a workforce development solution that is tailored to your business needs and make the most of the apprenticeship levy.

Over 150 members of staff helping businesses and learners

Want further advice?

Northern Skills Group has a dedicated Business Advice Team who can offer your organisation further advice and guidance on the Apprenticeship Levy and how to use your digital allowance to benefit your business.

To arrange an informal discussion or a company visit with a business adviser: Call: 03453 40 40 40 | Email: info@northernskills.co.uk

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APPRENTICESHIPS & TRAINING