Resident Doctor exam fees in England are finally getting reimbursed. More details have just been announced!

What's happened

The June pay deal promised that mandatory Royal College exam fees would be put back in your pocket. Now the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges has published the list of exams that count. It covers every exam you need for your CCT, including MRCP, MRCS, MRCGP, FRCA, MRCPsych, MRCOG and MRCPCH. The money comes through your employer, which is given the funding to pay it. The system to claim back fees will go live in the next few weeks.

What it's worth

Take MRCP. At today's fees, the 3 exams cost:

• Part 1: £520
• Part 2 Written: £520
• PACES: £742

That's £1,782, and as long as they're within your first 2 sittings, you can claim all of it back. If you're in a training post, you've always been able to claim tax relief on exam fees, so some of that money was already coming back to you. Taking that off, the reimbursement is worth £1,426 if you pay basic rate tax, or £1,069 at higher rate. The reimbursement itself isn't taxed.

Who can claim exam fee reimbursement

• Resident doctors in training in England, including foundation doctors.
• Out of programme (OOP) for research, management or anything else, as long as you hold a national training number (NTN), even if you're employed outside the NHS.
• LEDs in an NHS, university or local authority post at the time you pay for the exam. LEDs in other public sector jobs may be covered case by case.
• Dentists in the same roles. The relevant dental exams are covered for dentists and for oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMFS) trainees.
• If you've since left the post you sat the exam in, as long as you were eligible at the time. You claim from the employer you had then.

The rules that matter

• The first 2 sittings of each exam, sat after 1 April 2026. How many times you sat it before April doesn't matter. If you've already sat one since 1 April, you can claim it back once the system is live.
• When you paid doesn't matter. If you paid before 1 April 2026 for an exam you sat after it, it counts.
• You don't have to have sat it yet. Once the system is live, you can claim as soon as you've paid and can show the payment. It's based on paying for the exam, not on whether you end up sitting it.
• A new diagnosis can reset the count. If you're newly diagnosed with a condition that needs reasonable adjustments, and your college has agreed to reset your attempts, you can claim the first 2 sittings after diagnosis.