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ProblemConfirmed error16–19ASFApprenticeshipsBootcampsTailored learning

A learner left weeks ago but is still showing as continuing

This is wrong and needs correcting. It is not a judgement call.

Funding year2026–27Awaiting verificationReviewed18 September 2026See the sourcesReport an issue

In plain English

The learner has stopped attending, but the ILR still shows their aim as open with no actual end date, so the system believes they are still in learning and keeps generating funding for them.

Why it matters

Funding continues to be claimed for a learner who is not there. That funding is not properly earned, so it is likely to be recovered, and the longer it runs the larger the correction. The record also distorts retention and achievement, because an aim left open past its planned end date eventually resolves as a non-achievement.

Funding

Funding continues to accrue for a learner who is not in learning. When corrected, earnings are restated across every affected period, which can produce a visible reduction in a single month.

Performance

An aim left open past its planned end date resolves as a non-achievement in the qualification achievement rate. Recording the withdrawal at the right date may also change which cohort the aim falls into.

Audit

Claiming funding for a learner who has left is a standard audit test and a common source of recovery. The register is the evidence, and it will contradict the return.

Most likely causes

Ranked, because in practice a few causes explain most cases.

  • common
    Curriculum knew the learner had gone but never notified MISThe most frequent cause by a wide margin. The tutor knows, the register shows it, and nothing reaches the team that maintains the record. It is a process problem, not a data problem.
  • common
    The withdrawal was notified but not enteredThe notification arrived by email or on a form and was not actioned before the return. Check the notification route for a backlog before assuming nobody told anyone.
  • occasional
    The learner was recorded as a break in learning rather than a withdrawalA temporary withdrawal keeps the aim open deliberately. That is right where the learner genuinely intends to return and there is evidence of it, and wrong where it has become a way of avoiding recording a withdrawal.
  • occasional
    The actual end date was entered but the completion status was not changedA partially completed withdrawal can leave the record internally inconsistent, which may or may not produce a validation failure depending on the combination.
  • rare
    The learner genuinely is still in learningOccasionally the register is wrong rather than the ILR. Confirm attendance before changing anything: removing a learner who is actually attending is worse than leaving them.

Check these first

  1. Confirm with the curriculum area whether the learner is genuinely attending.
  2. Establish the actual last date of attendance from the register, not the date somebody noticed.
  3. Check whether a break in learning was intended and whether there is evidence of the intention to return.
  4. Check whether the aim's planned end date has already passed, which changes the urgency.
  5. Check whether other learners in the same group have the same problem, which points to a process cause.
Fields involved

Actual end dateCompletion statusWithdrawal reasonOutcome

How to investigate

  1. Get the register and establish the real last date of attendance. Everything else follows from that date.
  2. Ask whether this is one learner or a pattern: run the same check across the whole cohort and across the curriculum area.
  3. Check whether the notification route from curriculum to MIS is working, and how long notifications are taking.
  4. Quantify the funding involved so the correction can be explained to Finance before it appears in a report.

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

  1. Find the learner in the student record system by learner reference number or ULN.
  2. Open the learning aim that is still showing as open.
  3. Record the actual end date as the learner's genuine last date of attendance.
  4. Set the completion status to withdrawn, and record the withdrawal reason.
  5. Where the aim ended with a known result, record the outcome as well.
  6. Regenerate the ILR and re-run validation before submitting.

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

  1. Record the withdrawal in the student record system, not in the generated file.
  2. Use the genuine last date of attendance as the actual end date.
  3. Set the completion status and the withdrawal reason to match what actually happened.
  4. Regenerate and revalidate the ILR, then submit at the next return.
  5. Expect the earnings for that learner to be restated across earlier periods, and tell Finance before they see it.

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 weekly report of learners with no attendance recorded for a defined period, sent to curriculum leads for confirmation.

Owner: Head or director of MISFrequency: Weekly

A single named route for notifying a leaver, with a service-level expectation for how quickly it is actioned.

Owner: Curriculum manager or head of departmentFrequency: Continuous

A pre-return check for learners in learning past their planned end date, worked to zero or to a documented reason.

Owner: MIS or ILR officerFrequency: Every return

The rules behind this

FEFunding explanation

When a withdrawal is recorded changes both the funding earned and whether the aim counts in the achievement rate. Recording a withdrawal late is not a neutral administrative delay.

Recommended good practice

Corrections should be made in the source system that owns the data, then regenerated into the ILR. Editing an ILR file directly leaves the source system wrong and the error returns at the next generation.

Related

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.

Qualification achievement rates and minimum standards (opens in a new tab)

GOV.UKOfficial funding documentAwaiting first verification

Adult Skills Fund funding and performance management rules 2026 to 2027 (opens in a new tab)

GOV.UKOfficial funding document2026–27Awaiting first verification

ILR: sources of data (opens in a new tab)

GOV.UKOfficial funding documentAwaiting first verification

Content reused from GOV.UK is Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence. FEFunding is not endorsed by the Department for Education.