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Audio lesson · 11 minutes

Adult Skills Fund

An allocation you have to earn, with eligibility that must be evidenced before you claim, and a reconciliation at the end that can reduce what you keep.

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Chapters

  1. An allocation you have to earn
  2. Eligibility and evidence
  3. Devolved or national

Transcript

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Introduction

Adult Skills Fund: earning, evidencing and reconciling. An allocation you have to earn, with eligibility that must be evidenced before you claim, and a reconciliation at the end that can reduce what you keep.

An allocation you have to earn

This asymmetry is the defining feature of the stream, and it is why monthly reconciliation matters here more than anywhere else. Under-delivery identified in February can be managed; under-delivery identified in July cannot. Reconciliation arrangements, including any tolerance, are set out in the funding rules for the funding year and should never be assumed to have carried over.

Eligibility, and the evidence behind it

Full funding, co-funding and the various entitlements each have their own conditions. Recording the wrong basis is a funding error even where the learner was eligible on some other basis. The most common audit finding in this stream is not ineligibility. It is eligibility that was genuinely established and cannot be demonstrated because the evidence was checked visually and never retained.

Devolved or national: the postcode decides

Because devolved areas have expanded across successive funding years, a postcode that was national last year may be devolved this year. Review the position at the start of each year, before the first enrolments. The position that matters is the one at the aim start date, not the learner's current address.

Read it instead

Adult Skills Fund: earning, evidencing and reconciling

The written module carries the same content at three depths, with the worked examples, the pitfalls and the sources.

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.

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

GOV.UKOfficial funding document2026–27Awaiting first verification

Adult Skills Fund funding rates and formula 2026 to 2027 (opens in a new tab)

GOV.UKOfficial funding document2026–27Awaiting first verification

Advice: funding regulations for post-16 provision (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.