With the introduction of the Apprenticeship Levy only a few months away, the Government has announced that the Digital Apprenticeship Service (DAS) is launching this month, ready for businesses who will be paying into the Apprenticeship Levy to register and get ready to access their funding from May.
Initially, the Government have invited some users to register, to assist them in continuous testing of the online portal, before opening the invitation to register to all levy-payers in mid-February.
It is understood by us, that levy-payers will be able to set up accounts on the DAS, choose the types of apprenticeships they want to run, the number of apprentices they wish to take on, and select the appropriate training providers.
Gary Tucker, DAS’ service manager, explains the process his team went through to make sure it would meet the needs of the employers using the system before handing it over to the Government Digital Service (GDS). The GDS is the online home for all of the various services from the British government.
“Over the past three months, the service has been thoroughly tested from end to end by 100 employers and their training providers.”
This testing covered registration, the process of “adding an apprentice to reflect the agreement between the employer and the provider”, and “submitting provider data to evidence training and trigger payments”.
Will you be paying into the Apprenticeship Levy?
Any UK employer, in any sector, with a salary bill of more than £3 million per tax year, will pay into the levy. The levy is set at 0.5% of your salary bill and will be a monthly deduction, so in reality, these costs will be taken in any month where your salary bill is over £250,000. This figure is worked out by calculating all remuneration or profit coming from the employment of all staff (including directors), such as wages, bonuses, commissions, and pension contributions.
Your payroll department will calculate, report and pay your levy to HMRC, through the Pay as You Earn (PAYE) process alongside Income Tax and National Insurance from April 2017. Single employers with multiple PAYE schemes will be added together in levy calculations. The government intends to allow employers to share one allowance between employers who are in connected ownership or control (for example groups of companies or joint ventures)
Your levy payments will be recorded on the Digital Apprenticeship Service website where you can access your account at any time.
Once the levy is introduced, the government want to make sure that employers are still encouraged to take on
16–18 year old apprentices and have introduced the £1000 incentive. From May 2017, any business that recruits an apprentice aged 16-18 will receive £1000, this will be paid in two instalments throughout the duration of the apprentice’s time on their programme.
For more information on the apprenticeship levy and how this will affect you, please click here.
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