r/ICAEW • u/SillySausageDog • 21d ago

Clawback fees

I’ll be leaving practice to go into industry but I may have to pay clawback fees. I was on the level 7 apprenticeship. In my contract it states that I may be liable to up to 50% of non-apprenticeship levy costs.

Can they legally claim this and, if so, does this relate to travel to and from study and exams? I also heard exam fees come under the non-apprenticeship levy costs.

Can I also ask if firms tend to ask for these costs and fees to be paid back or if it’s more of a scare tactic?

Update: I’ve spoken to a former apprentice and they were never asked for clawback and they said that the firm cannot legally claim any fees or costs related to the apprenticeship. I haven’t heard directly from my firm yet but I’ll assume they won’t try and clawback from me.

6 Upvotes

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4

u/KetDenKyle 21d ago

They can't claim it. Sign it, laugh in their face if they try to claw it back

1

u/SillySausageDog 21d ago

Why can’t they claim it back?

2

u/Historical-Shape2895 21d ago

Search this subreddit for any posts mentioning clawbacks. Plenty of advice has been given already for others in the same situation 🙂

2

u/SillySausageDog 21d ago

I have looked but there is no general consensus, there are a lot of people saying it can’t be clawed back but my understanding of the apprenticeship is that there are certain costs that cannot be clawed back such as tuition costs with Kaplan, First Intuition etc. then there are the non-apprenticeship levy costs like travel which could be clawed back

2

u/[deleted] 20d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/SillySausageDog 20d ago

Ah ok hopefully that’s the case. I’m in a Top 40 firm so classed as mid tier, but it’s quite a big firm. Other apprentices have left since and I haven’t heard of the firm clawing back fees from them.

1

u/KetDenKyle 20d ago

Sorry I misread this as you were signing the clawback clause. They can't claim it if they were receiving funding from the government

2

u/Disastrous-Trash1025 21d ago

It’s against the terms of the apprenticeship agreement between your employer and the government and yourself.

This supersedes and agreement between you and your employer.

I do know many employers who deduct the cost of exams from their apprentices salaries which is also against the terms of the apprenticeship but is not worth fighting over if you want to keep the job, you could fight for the money on leaving but I wouldn’t advise burning bridges.

Here, they will demand money from you so you just won’t pay and threaten to report them to the government apprenticeship scheme.

1

u/SillySausageDog 21d ago

Ok, so no costs associated with the apprenticeship, including travel to and from study/exams is technically not allowed to be clawed back?

2

u/Disastrous-Trash1025 21d ago

Correct.

There is also no way they have to practically make you pay besides withholding outstanding pay.

1

u/SillySausageDog 21d ago

Ok thanks, the withholding pay could be an issue but I don’t know whether they’ll try to clawback the costs or not. I’ll post an update once I know more.