Teachers: claim back your student loan repayments
Eligible biology, chemistry, physics, computing and languages teachers can claim back student loan repayments until March 2025.
Applies to England
Apply to claim back your repayments
Apply to claim back a student loan repayment. You need to apply before 31 March 2025.
You can also set up a reminder to apply for a payment in the future.
Claims for the 2023 to 2024 financial year
Between 14 October 2024 and 31 March 2025, you can claim back repayments if you:
- taught biology, chemistry, physics, computing or languages during the 2023 to 2024 financial year (April 2023 to April 2024)
- taught at a school in an eligible local authority during the 2023 to 2024 financial year
- spent at least 50% of your contracted hours teaching one or more eligible subjects
- completed your initial teacher training (ITT) course between the 2013 to 2014 academic year and 2020 to 2021 academic year (1 September to 31 August), including those years
- are currently employed as a teacher at a state-funded secondary school in England
Eligible teachers
For the reimbursement period, you must have been employed in a state-funded secondary school (or middle-deemed secondary school) in England. These include:
- local authority-maintained schools
- academies, free schools or multi-academy trusts
- local authority-maintained or non-maintained special schools
You need to be working as a teacher in a state-funded secondary school in England when you claim back your student loan repayments.
You must have either:
- qualified teacher status (QTS)
- qualified teacher learning and skills (QTLS) and membership of the Society for Education and Training (SET)
You must have completed your ITT in one of these academic years:
- 2013 to 2014
- 2014 to 2015
- 2015 to 2016
- 2016 to 2017
- 2017 to 2018
- 2018 to 2019
- 2019 to 2020
- 2020 to 2021
The academic year runs from 1 September to 31 August.
Eligible subjects
You must teach one or more of these subjects:
- biology
- chemistry
- computing
- languages
- physics
You must have spent at least 50% of your contracted hours teaching one or more of the eligible subjects during the year for which you are claiming. Your school may be asked to confirm this during the application process.
Eligible schools
The school you worked for when you originally made the repayments must be in one of these local authority areas:
- Barnsley
- Blackpool
- Bracknell Forest
- Bradford
- Cambridgeshire
- Derby
- Derbyshire
- Doncaster
- Halton
- Knowsley
- Luton
- Middlesbrough
- Norfolk
- North East Lincolnshire
- North Northamptonshire
- North Yorkshire
- Northumberland
- Oldham
- Peterborough
- Portsmouth
- Salford
- Sefton
- St Helens
- Stoke-on-Trent
- Suffolk
- West Northamptonshire
The years you can claim for
You can only claim back repayments you made in certain financial years, based on when you completed your ITT.
| Academic year you completed your ITT | Financial years you can claim for |
|---|---|
| 2013 to 2014 | 2023 to 2024 up to 2024 to 2025 |
| 2014 to 2015 | 2023 to 2024 up to 2025 to 2026 |
| 2015 to 2016 | 2023 to 2024 up to 2026 to 2027 |
| 2016 to 2017 | 2023 to 2024 up to 2027 to 2028 |
| 2017 to 2018 | 2023 to 2024 up to 2028 to 2029 |
| 2018 to 2019 | 2023 to 2024 up to 2029 to 2030 |
| 2019 to 2020 | 2023 to 2024 up to 2030 to 2031 |
| 2020 to 2021 | 2023 to 2024 up to 2031 to 2032 |
You’ll need to claim separately for each financial year.
Payment
The amount we pay you is based on the amount you repaid to the Student Loans Company through Pay As You Earn (PAYE) while employed as a teacher.
It is not possible to claim back any voluntary student loan repayments you made, or repayments made through any other jobs.
Student loan deduction
The payment is treated as pay, which means a student loan deduction may be made. If applicable, we will make this deduction automatically when we pay you.
Taxable income and National Insurance
Student loan repayments are considered taxable income.
DfE will pay Income Tax up to the basic rate and National Insurance for the payment on your behalf. The basic rate of tax is currently based on an annual income of £12,571 to £50,270, taxed at a rate of 20%.
You will need to pay any Income Tax over the higher rate through PAYE if you become or already are a higher rate taxpayer. The higher rate is currently an income of £50,271 to £125,140, taxed at a rate of 40%.
You can review the tax bands on Income Tax rates and personal allowances.
The payment is not part of your salary from your employer. You, your employer or the government will not contribute to your pension as part of this payment.
You should consider any other benefits or tax credits that could be affected if you claim this benefit, such as the High Income Child Benefit Charge or Marriage Allowance.
Your payment, along with the Income Tax and National Insurance contributions paid on your behalf, will all count towards your income.
Number of payments
You can only claim back your student loan repayments once in each academic year.
Additional payments you can claim
You may be eligible for additional payments if you teach one of the following subjects:
- chemistry
- physics
- computing
- languages
- mathematics
Contact
For any queries about claiming back student loan repayments made while employed as a teacher, email studentloanteacherpayment@digital.education.gov.uk.
Updates to this page
Published 31 October 2019Last updated 14 October 2024 + show all updates
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Applications for the 2024 to 2025 academic year are now open. We have updated the page to reflect this.
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Updated to clarify that eligible teachers can claim back student loan repayments for the 2024 to 2025 academic year from 14 October 2024.
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Updated to reflect application opening date has changed from September 2024 to October 2024.
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Removed the 'Apply now' section as the window to make claims for the 2022 to 2023 financial year has now closed.
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Amended the wording in the Taxable income and National insurance section for clarity.
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The window to apply to claim back student loan repayments is now open and eligible teachers can apply.
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Added the dates on which applications open in 2023 and close in 2024, and removed the 'What you need to make a claim' section.
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'Register your interest' forms have been added for the academic year 2023 to 2024.
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Updated to show that applications for the 2021 to 2022 financial year closed on 31 March.
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Eligible teachers can now apply for payments until March, rather than January.
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Page updated as eligible teachers can now claim back student loan repayments made while employed as a teacher.
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Under ‘Eligible subjects’, biology has replaced mathematics to correct an error.
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Added information about other additional payments.
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Updated to include eligibility from the 2013 to 2014 and 2021 to 2022 academic years.
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Updated to reflect latest changes and that the teacher student loan reimbursement scheme for 2020 to 2021 repayments has closed.
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Added a link to the claim back your student loan repayments service as the claims window is now open.
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Updated as the claim form is closed until September 2021.
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Added information about the claims window reopening and a link to the claims service.
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Updated to show claim service is now closed until September 2020.
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Added a closing date for applications.
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Updated one of the claim criteria from 'you can claim if you spend less than 50% of your contracted hours on leadership duties' to 'you can claim if you spent at least 50% of your contracted hours teaching one or more eligible subjects.'
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First published.