Teachers: claim back your student loan repayments
Source: gov.uk (2025-09-25)

Eligible biology, chemistry, physics, computing and languages teachers can claim back student loan repayments from 2 March 2026 until 31 May 2026.

You’ll be able to claim for the financial year 2024 to 2025 from 2 March 2026 until 31 May 2026.

Claims for the 2024 to 2025 financial year

From March 2026, you can claim back repayments if you:
- taught biology, chemistry, physics, computing or languages during the 2024 to 2025 financial year (April 2024 to April 2025)
- taught at a school in an eligible local authority during the 2024 to 2025 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
Your claim will be verified by DfE from April 2026 onwards.

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) (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/qualified-teacher-status-qts)
- qualified teacher learning and skills (QTLS) (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/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The school you worked for when you originally made the repayments must be in one of these local authority areas: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.

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 (https://www.gov.uk/income-tax-rates).

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 (https://www.gov.uk/child-benefit-tax-charge) or Marriage Allowance (https://www.gov.uk/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
- mathematics
Find out if you are eligible for any additional payments (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/additional-payments-for-teaching-eligibility-and-payment-details).

Contact

For any queries about claiming back student loan repayments made while employed as a teacher, email xxx@xxx.xx (mailto:xxx@xxx.xx).