The £1,000 additional payment, and who actually receives it
Long-standing, widely claimed, and still routinely missed because nobody chases the bank details.
Employers receive an additional payment of £1,000 for an apprentice aged 16 to 18 at the start of their apprenticeship, or aged 19 to 24 where the apprentice has an Education, Health and Care plan or has been in the care of their local authority. The training provider receives a matching £1,000.
It is paid in two instalments: the first once the apprentice has completed 90 days on programme, and the second at 365 days. It is separate from the funding band, so it does not come out of a levy account or count towards co-investment.
The 2026/27 rules clarified two operational points. Both the provider and the employer receive the payment where the apprentice meets the criteria — this had been a source of confusion. And there are now minimum expectations on providers when contacting employers for their bank details, because the most common reason the payment goes unclaimed is simply that nobody collected the details.
The rules also set out what information providers must give apprentices about declaring care leaver status. An apprentice who does not know they can declare it will not, and the payment is lost along with the apprentice's own £3,000 bursary.
What follows: this is money left on the table more often than it should be. If you are a provider, audit which of your current apprentices are eligible and whether the employer bank details are on file. If you are an employer, check your finance team knows to expect two payments rather than one, and that they are not being coded as training income.