Changes to Enhanced Learning Credits & Further Education and Higher Education Schemes

 From 01 April 2016 the Enhanced Learning Credits (ELC) and Further Education and HigherEducation schemes will see some changes, including the introduction of auto-enrolment ofall current Service Personnel.The MOD promotes lifelong learning among members of the Armed Forces, and this isencouraged through the Learning Credit schemes. The aim of the changes to the schemesare to make ELC easier to use and more accessible to all current Service Personnel(through auto-enrolment); and to enable them to make use of ELC to enhance personal andprofessional qualifications in a more flexible way, both while serving and to aid careertransition from the Service.Under the ELC and FEHE schemes qualifying Service Personnel (SP) and Service Leavers(SL) receive financial help with the cost of learning. ELC allows a single payment in each ofa maximum of three separate financial years; or now a single, aggregated lower tierpayment. The FEHE scheme provides full tuition fees for eligible SL undertaking their firstfurther or higher level qualification.The level of funding will remain the same, with an ELC lower tier of up to 3 payments of upto £1000 in 3 separate financial years and a higher tier of up to 3 payments of up to £2000 in3 separate financial years. SP and SL are eligible for up to 3 payments.FEHE will continue to pay in full for a first qualification from Level 3 (2 x A Levels orequivalent) up to undergraduate degree level.The key changes to the schemes are as follows: All Service Personnel (SP) currently in service will be auto-enrolled to be eligible forboth Schemes, as will future SP on completion of Phase 1 training A new ELC payment has been created: an aggregated lower tier payment, a singlepayment of up to £3000 for those with 6 or more years of qualifying servicecompleted on or after 1 Apr 16, which will count as all 3 payments. The qualifying service required for lower tier payments and FEHE will increase from 4to 6 years from 1 Apr 2017. SP who have already accumulated 4 years qualifyingservice before 1 Apr 2017 will keep their entitlement to use lower tier payments andFEHE. Post service access to ELC and FEHE, for all those leaving on or after 1 Apr 2016,will be reduced to 5 years. Those who left between 1 Apr 11 and 31 Mar 16 (both dates inclusive) will have until31 Mar 21 to use ELC or FEHE – 5 years from now. Anyone who left before 01 April2011 will retain 10 years of post-service access.More information is available in JSP 898.