Incentive payments for hiring a new apprentice
When you hiring a new apprentice aged 16-18, you could be eligible for the £1000 incentive payment.
This could be for an apprentice who is either:
- aged 16 to 18 years old, or
- aged 19 to 25 years old and has an education, health and care (EHC) plan or has been in the care of their local authority
What you can use the payment for
You can spend it on any costs associated with supporting an apprentice in the workplace.
For example, on uniforms, your apprentice’s travel or their salary.
How to get the payment
Employers do not need to take any action.
We use confirmation from the training provider that an apprentice is eligible and calculate payments.
Training providers must get consent from apprentices who have EHC plans or have been in the care of their local authority to share this information with the employer. Payment will not be calculated for employers if consent is not provided.
When you’ll get paid
The first payment of £500 should be paid to the employer by the training provider after 90 days of the apprenticeship training start date.
The final payment of £500 should be paid to the employer by the training provider after 365 days of the apprenticeship training start date.
Training providers have 30 working days to make payment to employers.
When applying for the incentive payment for hiring a new apprentice, make sure you have:
• added the correct PAYE schemes, that you use to pay your apprentices, to your apprenticeship service account, in line with the service terms and conditions
• only applied for eligible apprentices and you have documentation which can validate your claim, as listed in the apprenticeship funding rules
• checked your training provider has the correct National Insurance Number for each of your apprentices, and that they have included this in their funding submissions