Reimbursement of loan repayments
In 2021/22 a pilot scheme is available which reimburses the student loan repayments of newly qualified teachers in state-funded schools in participating local authorities in England. To qualify, you must:
•be employed in a maintained secondary school, maintained special school, secondary academy or secondary free school in one of 25 participating local authorities;
•spend at least 50 per cent of your time teaching a priority subject: languages, physics, chemistry, biology or computer science;
•have received qualified teacher status in 2013/14 or later. Reimbursement is available for up to 11 years following the year you received qualified teacher status so, for those who received this in 2013/14, the reimbursement will end by 2024/25 at the latest.
Although the reimbursement is subject to income tax and national insurance, this is covered by the Department for Education. For more information, including a list of participating local authorities, see .
A similar pilot scheme is available for newly qualified teachers who took teaching posts in the academic years 2002/03, 2003/04 and 2004/05. If you are eligible and you work in a shortage subject, your student loan is repaid for you. The scheme only applies if you spend at least half of your teaching time teaching the shortage subjects. To be eligible you must:
•be employed in England or Wales in a teaching post at a maintained school, a non-maintained special school, a city technology college, a city college for the technology of arts or a city academy;
•have begun employment between 1 July 2002 and 30 June 2005;
•be employed to teach one or more of the shortage subjects for at least half of your teaching time within a normal school week.
Contact the Student Loans Company for more information (see
Appendix 2). This scheme is not available to teachers who started employment after 30 June 2005.