Businesses may lose millions over apprenticeship levy

♦ The Government’s flagship apprenticeship levy scheme could end up costing businesses millions of pounds, a report has found.

More than £1.28billion of the cash that has been paid into the apprenticeship levy by companies is “languishing” in National Apprenticeship Service accounts, says the Open University (OU).

The levy forces companies with a wage bill of more than £3billion to pay 0.5 per cent of it to the Education and Skills Funding Agency. They have until April 2019 to draw down the funding, to use to take on apprentices or train existing staff.

Just eight per cent of the funds have so far been used, meaning that most businesses have not yet withdrawn the cash they paid in. The OU warned they risk losing as much as £139 million a month from April 2019.

Anne Milton, the apprenticeships minister, said: “It has taken some businesses longer to get going on their apprenticeship programmes while many that I have met are forging ahead.”