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
We are making approximately £155 million available in financial year 2025 to 2026 to support institutions with the increase to employers’ National Insurance contributions arising from their post-16 education from April 2025.
Additional funding for pre-16 provision will be allocated through the National Insurance contributions (NICs) grant.
Funding for high needs settings is being allocated via the core schools budget grant (CSBG) 2025 to 2026.
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 2025 to 2026 for eligible institutions. There are 3 components to the post-16 NICs grant:
- 16 to 19
- non 16 to 19 funded students and apprentices (in eligible settings)
- local authority centrally employed teachers (CETs) and centrally employed support staff
Settings will only receive the components that apply to their situation. The components are based on the most current data DfE holds to calculate the share of the grant.
Conditions of grant
We expect to publish the conditions of grant in May 2025.
Allocations and payment
We expect to publish allocations in May 2025 and pay the grant as a single payment in September 2025.
Updates to this page
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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.