An apprentice is on the ILR but is not generating any payments
This has been flagged because it is worth checking. It may be entirely correct. Investigate before assuming anything is wrong.
In plain English
The apprentice exists on the ILR and looks correct, but no earnings are being generated for them. Apprenticeship funding depends on the ILR and the apprenticeship service agreeing, so a record that is perfect in one and absent or different in the other produces nothing.
Why it matters
The training is being delivered and not funded. Left unresolved, the gap grows every month, and some causes become harder to correct the longer they run.
Funding
No earnings are generated while the mismatch persists. Depending on the cause, some of the lost period may not be recoverable once corrected.
Performance
The apprentice still counts for achievement purposes, so an unfunded apprentice can still damage the achievement rate if the underlying delivery also suffers.
Audit
Records that do not reconcile between the ILR and the service are a standard test, in both directions.
Most likely causes
Ranked, because in practice a few causes explain most cases.
- commonThe apprenticeship has not been added or approved in the apprenticeship serviceThe employer has to add the apprentice and approve the arrangement. Until they do, there is nothing for the ILR record to match against.
- commonA detail differs between the ILR and the apprenticeship serviceThe usual culprits are the ULN, the start date, the standard and the price. A single character or a day's difference is enough to prevent a match.
- occasionalThe employer has insufficient funds and the arrangement has not been set up for co-investmentCheck the funding route as well as the record itself.
- occasionalThe apprenticeship financial record is missing or incomplete on the ILRWithout the price recorded, there is nothing to calculate earnings from.
- occasionalThe record is within a qualifying period and has not yet begun to generate earningsCheck the timing before treating it as an error. A recent start may simply not have earned yet.
Check these first
- Check the apprentice exists in the apprenticeship service and has been approved by the employer.
- Compare the ULN, start date, standard and price between the ILR and the service, character by character.
- Check the apprenticeship financial record is present and complete on the ILR.
- Check whether the employer is levy paying or co-investing, and that the arrangement matches.
ULNLearning start dateStandard codeApprenticeship financial recordFunding modelEmployer identifier
How to investigate
- Start with existence, then identity, then detail. Does the record exist in the service at all; is it the same person; do the details match.
- Use the signed agreement with the employer to settle any disagreement between the two systems.
- Check whether other apprentices with the same employer have the same problem, which points at the employer account rather than the record.
- Quantify the unfunded delivery so the urgency is visible.
In your system
These steps are system-neutral: they describe what has to be true in the data, which is the same whatever software your college runs. We do not publish supplier screen paths we have not verified, because menu locations differ by version and by local configuration, and a confidently wrong instruction is worse than none.
System-neutral
- Open the apprentice's record in the student record system and note the ULN, start date, standard and negotiated price.
- Open the same apprentice in the apprenticeship service and compare each value.
- Where they differ, establish which is correct from the signed agreement with the employer rather than assuming.
- Correct the wrong side, and where the ILR is wrong make the change in the student record system.
- Regenerate the ILR and check the next funding report.
Building your own map of where each of these lives in your system is the most useful induction document an MIS team can have. How to build one.
How to fix it
- Correct whichever side is wrong, based on the agreement with the employer.
- Where the ILR is wrong, correct it in the student record system and regenerate.
- Where the service is wrong, the employer usually has to make the change, so allow time for that conversation.
- Confirm earnings appear in the following period's funding report rather than assuming the fix worked.
Stop this happening again
Fixing the record clears this case. A control is what stops the next one, so each of these names what to do, who owns it and how often.
A monthly reconciliation between apprentices on the ILR and apprentices in the apprenticeship service, worked to zero differences.
A check at the point of start that the apprentice has been added and approved in the service before delivery begins.
A single owner for the employer relationship who is accountable for the account being set up correctly.
The rules behind this
An apprenticeship must be consistent between the ILR and the apprenticeship service. Where the two do not agree, funding does not flow correctly and the mismatch must be resolved.
An apprenticeship is funded against a price negotiated between the employer and the provider, capped by the funding band maximum for the apprenticeship standard. Any amount above the band maximum is paid by the employer and is not funded.
Sources
These are the official documents this page rests on. Where a figure, a deadline or an exact rule matters, the document is the authority and this page is the explanation.
Content reused from GOV.UK is Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence. FEFunding is not endorsed by the Department for Education.