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56<br />
Technical | Apprenticeship levy<br />
Payroll call<br />
Companies will soon have to apply the apprenticeship levy.<br />
Kate Upcraft looks at the issues and advises on how to prepare<br />
CPD<br />
Get verifiable CPD units<br />
by answering questions<br />
on this article at<br />
accaglobal.com/abcpd<br />
▲ Hammer it home<br />
Chancellor George<br />
Osborne’s apprenticeship<br />
levy formed part of the<br />
Conservative manifesto<br />
ahead of the 2015<br />
general election<br />
The UK’s payroll agents<br />
– and, one hopes, their<br />
clients – are gearing up for<br />
the implementation of the<br />
apprenticeship levy in April<br />
2017, which applies to all<br />
employers in all sectors.<br />
Despite its name, it has<br />
nothing to do with whether<br />
or not the business employs<br />
apprentices and everything<br />
to do with payroll processing.<br />
So what do we know<br />
about the design of the levy<br />
so far, and what questions<br />
remain unanswered?<br />
The levy was announced<br />
as part of the Conservative<br />
manifesto at the general<br />
election and is expected<br />
to raise £3bn from<br />
employers by 2020 to fund<br />
three million apprenticeships<br />
in England. Even that sentence<br />
indicates some of the issues<br />
raised so far:<br />
There is no real-time<br />
*<br />
information communication<br />
*<br />
into central government<br />
by ‘employers’ – only PAYE<br />
schemes. One employer<br />
might have one scheme or<br />
100 schemes.<br />
Apprenticeship frameworks<br />
are a devolved matter,<br />
with each of the four<br />
parts of the UK having<br />
their own structure. Yet<br />
the levy is supposed<br />
to fund only English<br />
apprenticeships – even for<br />
nationwide employers.<br />
*<br />
The levy is predicated on<br />
those who pay it receiving<br />
money back to fund<br />
apprenticeship training<br />
through a digital account.<br />
But what about employers<br />
who are firmly committed<br />
to training but not via<br />
apprenticeships or external<br />
training, preferring on-thejob<br />
qualifications?<br />
Much of the commentary<br />
to date has focused on the<br />
cut-off to pay the levy being<br />
Accounting and Business 07/2016