Who is exempt from the SSC application fee — and who is not

By Rajesh Kumar Checked against the official source on 24 August 2026 3 min read

The SSC application fee is ₹100. The exemption list is five categories long, and two of the categories people most expect to see on it are not there.

I checked this against the Commission’s own notice rather than any summary, because the list is short enough to quote exactly.

Who does not pay

Para 12.3 of SSC Advertisement No. Phase-XIV/2026 for Selection Posts:

“The women candidates and the candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), Persons with Benchmark Disabilities (PwBD) and the Ex-Servicemen (ESM) eligible for reservation are exempted from payment of fee.”

So the exempt list is:

• Women candidates — all of them, any category
• Scheduled Castes
• Scheduled Tribes
• Persons with Benchmark Disabilities
• Ex-Servicemen eligible for reservation

Who is not on that list

OBC candidates and EWS candidates.

An OBC man outside the creamy layer gets age relaxation and gets a reserved vacancy. He does not get the fee exemption. Same for an EWS candidate.

That surprises people, because in most other contexts the four reserved categories move together. Here they do not, and the notice does not explain why. It simply lists four categories and women, and stops.

A woman who is OBC or EWS is exempt — but on the strength of being a woman, not of her category.

Note the qualifier on Ex-Servicemen

The wording is “Ex-Servicemen (ESM) eligible for reservation” — not simply “Ex-Servicemen”.

That qualifier matters, because ESM reservation is not open-ended. It attaches to specific posts and to candidates who still satisfy the ESM conditions for that recruitment.

If you are claiming this exemption, the paragraph on ESM eligibility in the same notice is the one to read, not this one.

How the fee is paid

Online only. Para 12.2 lists the modes: BHIM UPI, net banking, or a Visa, Master or Maestro card, or a RuPay credit or debit card.

There is no challan, no cash counter and no post office route in this notice.

The payment window closes a day after the application window. In the 2026 notice, applications closed on 4 May at 11 pm and fee payment closed on 5 May at 11 pm.

That extra day is a genuine cushion, and it is the only one you get.

What happens if the fee does not reach them

Para 12.5 is blunt: applications received without the prescribed fee “shall not be considered and summarily rejected. No representation against such rejection will be entertained.”

Para 12.6 tells you how to avoid finding this out too late. If the fee has not been received, the application status shows as Incomplete, and that word is printed at the top of the application form printout.

There is also a Payment Status link inside the candidate login.

So the check is: open your login, look at payment status, and look at the top of your own printout. If it says Incomplete, the money did not arrive, whatever your bank app said.

The fee is not refundable, at all

Para 12.5 again, and this is worth quoting because people plan around the opposite assumption:

“The fee once paid shall not be refunded under any circumstances nor will it be adjusted against any other examination or selection.”

Not if the exam is cancelled for you. Not if you decide not to appear. Not if you paid for the wrong post. And it cannot be carried across to another SSC examination.

One thing to do before you pay

Para 11.12 asks candidates to use the Preview option before submitting, and check every field.

This matters more than it sounds, because of the order of events. The fee is not refundable and not transferable, and the correction window for this notice ran from 11 to 13 May, a week after applications closed. The notice heads that window “Window for Application Form Correction” including online payment — so budget for the possibility that a correction costs something, and read that paragraph in your own notice.

Reading your own form once, slowly, before you pay is the cheapest step in the whole process.