Post-16 National Insurance contributions (NICs) grant
Guidance for institutions delivering post-16 education on the National Insurance contributions (NICs) grant for financial year 2025 to 2026.
Applies to England
Documents
Details
This guidance is for:
- maintained school and academy sixth forms
- 16 to 19 academies
- 16 to 19 schools
- sixth-form colleges
- general further education colleges
- designated institutions (including the new designated institutions that form part of higher education provider group structures)
- local authorities
Methodology
This document sets out the methodology for the post-16 NICs grant. This includes guidance on how we will allocate funding for financial year 2026 to 2027 for eligible institutions.
Conditions of grant
We expect to publish the conditions of grant in May.
Allocations and payment
We expect to publish the allocations in May.
We will make one payment to cover the 2026 to 2027 financial year.
Payments will be received in September 2026 for:
- local authorities
- maintained school sixth forms
- 16 to 19 schools
- all colleges and designated institutions
Academy sixth forms and 16 to 19 academies will receive payment in October 2026.
Updates to this page
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Added 'Post-16 National Insurance contributions grant methodology: April 2026 to March 2027'.
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We have updated the 'Allocations and payment' section on the 'Post-16 National Insurance contributions (NICs) grant' page to make clear payment timings for both local authorities and academies.
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We have amended section 5 of the methodology to confirm that the allocations have now been published.
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We have now published the conditions of grant for the 2025 to 2026 financial year. We have also published the allocations, we expect to pay the grant in September 2025.
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We have published the full methodology for the post-16 National Insurance contributions grant: April 2025 to March 2026. We have removed the attachment we published on 18 March 2025 called Post-16 National Insurance contributions (NICs) grant 2025 to 2026 because all this information is now either in the details section on the main page or in the full methodology.
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We have updated this page to clarify that the guidance applies to designated institutions, including the new designated institutions that form part of higher education provider group structures
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First published.