The Government is offering your business £4,000 if you take on an apprentice between now and the end of September; that’s an additional £3,000 on top of the £1,000 they were already offering.
If you took on apprentices after 1 April this year, you can also get £4,000 for them as long as they are between 16 and 18. (If they have additional needs and have an EHCP or have been in care, they can be up to 25 years old).
Your business can be any size and in any sector.
All the details and application form are here:
Incentive payments for hiring a new apprentice – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
In order to apply you will first need to set up an apprenticeship service account.
To receive the full payment, the apprenticeship must last for at least one year.
Apprentices who joined your organisation from 1 April 2021
You will receive £3,000 for new apprentices of any age who have an employment start date of 1 April 2021 to 30 September 2021.
They must have an apprenticeship start date of 1 April 2021 to 30 November 2021. Apprentices taken on before this are NOT eligible for the additional payment.
What you can use the payment for
The payment is different to apprenticeship levy funds, so you can spend it on anything to support your organisation’s costs. For example, on uniforms, your apprentice’s travel or their salary. You do not have to pay it back. With an hourly rate of c£4.30 and a weekly wage of c£172 you would effectively get 23 weeks free which is nearly half the year.
Eligibility
You can only apply for new apprentices who joined your organisation from 1 April 2021 to 30 September 2021.
You cannot apply for an existing employee who joined your organisation before 1 April 2021, even if they started an apprenticeship after this date.
How to apply
You can apply for the incentive payment after you add new apprentices to your apprenticeship service account.
When you’ll get paid
We cannot make any payments until we’ve received and verified your organisation and finance details. This could take up to 80 days and we may contact someone from your organisation.
The Government will make the payment in 2 equal instalments for each apprentice. The first payment is due after an apprentice completes 90 days of their apprenticeship and the second is due after 365 days.
They will make payments by Bacs on the 14th working day of the month. It usually takes 3 working days to process.
After you apply, you can view applications, estimated payment dates and check the status of each payment in your apprenticeship service account.
Get help
for more information from the Department for Education:
- contact us
- find out what we’re doing to support apprenticeships during the coronavirus outbreak
- find out how to take on an apprentice
