Apprentice completes EPA and leaves employer pre-result outcome

This is really complicated! We've had a good chat about it this afternoon.

1. If the stop date is after the month the EPA was sat you should still receive the completion payment, as the completion was earned before the stop was put in place. I don't know this works for definite - it's based on info provided from a DfE webinar on recording TNPs correctly: "If the employer edits the stop date so that it is after the completion date added to the ILR, this should allow the completion payment to be released to the provider."

2. In order to sit or resit the EPA the apprentice has to be employed (under an apprenticeship agreement). If you recorded the fail and claim the completion payment with the first employer, you've already had all the funding (assuming you charged band maximum). If that is the case you can't claim any further funding from ESFA, and would have to charge the new employer directly for any additional fees. You could allow the apprentice to resit with a new employer and charge them the resit fees. However if there is a Stop on the original funding then when the apprentice finally achieves moving the completion date to match the pass could potentially cause clawback of the completion payment.

If you hadn't claimed the completion payment from the previous employer, then you could do a normal change of employer (assuming the apprentice finds a new one that is happy to take them on just for EPA) and claim the completion after the apprentice has done any resits. You'd potentially have to charge the second employer for completion 20% plus resit fees in order to not lose out.

Roz Goodall 

Thanks for your reply Roz, really helpful, and yes, really complicated!

One other question:

If the learner is unable to sit the EPA before they leave their current employer and the new employer doesn’t want to ‘pay’ for the 20% completion and EPA from their levy pot, is this where the ‘Transfer of Levy Funds’ would apply?

Meaning the previous employer transfers the 20% completion of their levy funds and EPA costs to the new employer via DAS (the new employer needs to have a DAS account). So the new employer will have:

TNP1 costs = 20% completion

TNP2 costs = EPA costs

If the first employer is a levy payer and happy to pledge the remaining funding to the new employer they could set up a transfer of funds (although that would be extremely generous of them). "The apprentice can continue their apprenticeship with a new employer, funded by a transfer of levy funds." - (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/transferring-your-apprenticeship-levy-to-another-business#what-can-levy-transfers-pay-for)

TNP 3 and 4 would apply after a change of employer. To work out TNP 3 and 4 you'd need to have a look at how much funding you've actually received for the apprentice so far, and then work out the remaining funding left from the total negotiated price. Check your month end reports to make sure you have the right figures. The remaining funding would then break down as:

TNP 3 : training cost remaining (total remaining funding minus TNP 4)
TNP 4 : EPA cost remaining

If your EPA cost was very high (over 20% of the total negotiated price) you may have already received all the training funding and some of the EPA cost.