Incentive payments for hiring a new apprentice
For apprentices with an employment start date from 1 April 2021 to 30 September 2021, applications close on 30 November 2021.
Applies to England
Apply for the hire a new apprentice payment
You still have time to apply for a payment of £3,000 for apprentices with an employment start date from 1 April 2021 to 30 September 2021. Applications close on 30 November 2021.
You will be able to apply for a payment of £3,000 for apprentices with an employment start date from 1 October 2021 to 31 January 2022 once applications open in January 2022.
You must set up an apprenticeship service account before you can apply.
Eligibility
For apprentices with an employment start date from 1 April 2021 to 30 September 2021. Applications close on 30 November 2021.
These apprentices must also have an apprenticeship start date from 1 April 2021 to 30 November 2021.
You will be able to apply for a payment of £3,000 for apprentices with an employment start date from 1 October 2021 to 31 January 2022 once applications open in January 2022.
What you can use the payment for
The payment is different to apprenticeship levy funds, so you can spend it on anything to support your organisation’s costs. For example, on uniforms, your apprentice’s travel or their salary. You do not have to pay it back.
The payment is in addition to the existing £1,000 an employer will already get for taking on an apprentice who is either:
- aged 16 to 18 years old
- under 25 and has an education, health and care plan or has been in the care of their local authority
How to apply
To receive the payment, you must submit an application for each eligible apprentice using your apprenticeship service account.
You will need to add the apprentices to your apprenticeship service account first.
When you’ll get paid
We’ll send the payment in 2 equal instalments for each apprentice.
To be eligible, your apprentice must complete:
- 90 days of their apprenticeship for your first payment
- 365 days of their apprenticeship for your second payment
Once the apprenticeship information has been checked, we will process the payments.
Payments will be made on the 14th working day of the month, it can take up to 3 days for the payments to reach your account.
You can track when your payments are due to be paid on your view applications page.
We cannot send any payments until we’ve received and verified the organisation and finance details. This could take up to 80 days.
Get help
You can either:
Last updated 13 October 2021 + show all updates
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Removal of previous incentive period. Addition of new incentive period. Reordering of the content for clarity.
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Updated to show that the application deadline has passed for phase 1 incentive applications.
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Added phase 2 application closing deadline.
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Extending the phase 1 application window to 31 May 2021.
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Updated to reflect incentives extension and increase.
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Added additional information to make it clear that you can only apply for an incentive payment for a new employee apprentice, if you have set up an apprenticeship account and are using it to access funding for that apprentice's training.
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Financial incentive payments for hiring a new apprentice have been extended to new apprentices hired by 31 March 2021.
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Added information about when we'll make the incentive payments.
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Updated information on incentive payments and how to claim them by setting up an apprenticeship service employer account.
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First published.