Teachers: claim back your student loan repayments

Between September and January eligible biology, chemistry, physics, computing and languages teachers can claim back student loan repayments made while employed as a teacher.

You’ll be able to claim from September 2022 if you:

• taught biology, chemistry, physics, computing or languages during the 2021 to 2022 financial year (6 April 2021 to 5 April 2022)
• taught at a school in an eligible local authority during the 2021 to 2022 financial year
• spent at least 50% of your contracted hours teaching one or more eligible subjects
• completed your initial teacher training (ITT) course in or after the 2014 to 2015 academic year (1 September to 31 August)
• are currently employed as a teacher at a state-funded secondary school in England

Before you apply

You’ll need:

• the exact amount of student loan you repaid while employed as a teacher during the 2021 to 2022 financial year – you can get this from either logging into your student loan account and checking your balance, or your P60 if you only had one employer, or all your payslips from this period
• your National Insurance number
• your bank account details
• your 7-digit teacher reference number and the academic year in which you completed your initial teacher training – you can get these from:
  • your school
  • the certificate you got when you qualified
  • contacting the teacher qualifications helpdesk on 0207 593 5394 or [email protected]
  • the teacher self-service website

Eligible teachers

For the reimbursement period, you must have been employed in a state-funded secondary, including middle-deemed secondary schools, in England, in either:

• a local-authority-maintained school
• an academy or free school
• a local-authority-maintained or non-maintained special school

You must still 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
• qualified teacher learning and skills (QTLS) and membership of the Society for Education and Training (SET)

You must have completed your initial teacher training in one of these academic years:

• 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:

• languages
• physics
• chemistry
• biology
• computing

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. Schools 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 initial teacher training.

If you completed your initial teacher training in:

• 2014 to 2015 you can claim for 2020 to 2021 up to 2025 to 2026
• 2015 to 2016 you can claim for 2020 to 2021 up to 2026 to 2027
• 2016 to 2017 you can claim for 2020 to 2021 up to 2027 to 2028
• 2017 to 2018 you can claim for 2020 to 2021 up to 2028 to 2029
• 2018 to 2019 you can claim for 2020 to 2021 up to 2029 to 2030
• 2019 to 2020 you can claim for 2020 to 2021 up to 2030 to 2031
• 2020 to 2021 you can claim for 2021 to 2022 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.

Income Tax and National Insurance

The Department for Education will pay Income Tax and National Insurance on your payment on your behalf. Neither you nor your employing school will need to make any Income Tax or National Insurance contributions for this payment.

Salary and pensions

The payment is not part of your salary from your employer. You, your employer, or the government will not make a contribution to your pension as part of this payment.

Number of payments

You can only claim back your student loan repayments once in each academic year.

Register your interest

Teachers, schools and local authorities can use the forms below to register their interest and receive updates from the Department for Education.

Register your interest as a teacher

Register your interest as a school or local authority

More information

Email [email protected] for more information.Published 31 October 2019
Last updated 9 February 2022 – hide all updates

1. 9 February 2022Updated to reflect latest changes and that the teacher student loan reimbursement scheme for 2020 to 2021 repayments has closed.
2. 6 September 2021Added a link to the claim back your student loan repayments service as the claims window is now open.
3. 9 February 2021Updated as the claim form is closed until September 2021.
4. 2 September 2020Added information about the claims window reopening and a link to the claims service.
5. 3 March 2020Updated to show claim service is now closed until September 2020.
6. 5 February 2020Added a closing date for applications.
7. 3 December 2019Updated 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.’
8. 31 October 2019First published.