No. And the rules that decide the question are published, which is the useful half of the answer.
The maths does not go away, though. It moves. Firms that will take any degree subject usually move the requirement onto your A-level Maths grade. The profession moves it onto the exams you sit while you are working. And a process that takes any subject usually tests the arithmetic itself, in an online assessment sent out after you apply. So the accurate version is not "you do not need maths". It is "you do not need a maths degree, and here is where the maths gets checked instead".
Everything below is quoted from the page that publishes it, with the date we read it. Entry requirements are rewritten every cycle and they differ between programmes inside one firm, so read the advert you are applying to rather than a house standard, this article included.
The profession itself asks for nothing
Start with the qualification, because it has the lowest bar in this article. The IFoA's student membership page, read on 2026-09-10, says "While there are no academic admissions criteria for student membership, the IFoA qualification syllabus is rigorous and our examinations are highly demanding", and then that "we recommend applicants for student membership have a maths-based degree, for example:". The list printed under that sentence is Actuarial Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Economics, Engineering, Chemistry and Physics.
Two things fall out of it. Economics sits on the profession's own list of maths-based degrees, so the most common version of this worry is answered by the body that writes the exams. And the list is a recommendation with nothing behind it: the same page adds that "If you do not have a maths-based degree and want to join as a student member, we recommend you take one of our non-member exams before applying to join."
Membership is not what stands between you and the job, though. An employer is.
What the standard bar actually is
Across UK actuarial early careers the pattern that repeats is a 2:1 in a numerate subject, or a 2:1 in any subject plus A-level Maths at grade A or B. It is a pattern rather than a rule, and no firm is bound by it.
WTW writes both branches onto one page. Its UK and Ireland graduate page, read on 2026-09-10, opens with "We're open to graduates from any discipline, who have achieved a 2:1 or higher", then tells anyone "considering an actuarial career" that "you must have an A or B in A-level Maths or be studying a numerate degree discipline". Its Actuarial Graduate Analyst route asks for "At least a 2:1 degree in a numerate discipline OR 2:1 degree in a non-numerate discipline plus an A or B in A-Level Maths", and its Graduate Actuarial Consultant for Insurance asks for a "Minimum 2:1 degree in any discipline with an A or above in A-Level Maths (or equivalent) and A/B minimum from two further A Levels".
Read those lines twice, because they hold the whole answer. One employer, one page, and a non-numerate degree named as an accepted input. What changes is the price: the A-level grade gets stricter as the degree gets further from maths.
One gap worth knowing about. None of the pages quoted here defines "numerate". Economics, geography, psychology and business analytics all sit near the line, and the line is drawn by the person reading your form rather than by a published list. If your subject is arguable, email the early careers address on the page and ask before the window opens. A one-line answer in writing beats an evening of guessing, and it costs nothing.
Three employers, three different rules
The spread is wider than the pattern suggests. All three pages below were read on 2026-09-10.
| Employer and route | What its own page says |
|---|---|
| LCP, Investment Consulting graduate | "A Level STEM subject A grade - Degree 2:1 any subject" |
| Lloyd's of London, Actuarial Graduate Scheme | "2.1 minimum degree (or equivalent) in a numerate degree" |
| Hymans Robertson, graduate and internship | "We don't have any set minimum requirements in terms of academic achievement other than a confirmed 'pass' at undergraduate level for your academic degree" |
LCP publishes a department by department table, and the rows disagree with each other. Pensions Actuarial Consulting and Insurance Consulting both print "A Level Maths A grade - Degree 2:1 any subject". Investment Consulting and DC Investment and Governance take "A Level STEM subject A grade" against that same "2:1 any subject". Four other rows do ask for the subject, at "Degree STEM subject 2:1": Insurance Analytics, Pensions and Investment Modelling, Energy Modelling and Technology Development, and Energy Power Consulting. So the answer at LCP is set by the department you apply to rather than by the firm: the four rows named first here do not ask what you read at university, and the four named after them do.
Lloyd's of London is the other end of the range. Its scheme page asks for a "2.1 minimum degree (or equivalent) in a numerate degree", pays "£38,000" and runs "24 months total length". On 2026-09-10 it said "Applications are now closed", and its published timeline opened in January 2026, so that one is a January watch rather than an autumn one.
Hymans Robertson removes the bar. Its page says the firm recruits "on the basis of your potential rather than your academic grades", and that it "actively encourage applications from students from out with the traditional actuarial or mathematics fields often seen in our industry, and from students who have attended non-Russell group universities".
A page with no grades on it is not a page with no standard behind it. The weight has moved to the assessments.
Where the maths is actually tested
Two places, and both of them sit after the form.
An online numerical assessment, early. LCP's graduate FAQs, read on 2026-09-10, say that after you apply "we will invite you to complete either a numerical test or video interview depending on which department you have applied for". Aon's UK graduate page, read the same day, asks only that "You should have (or be on track to acheive) a 2:1 degree" with no subject attached, notes that "Some of our graduate streams have other specific requirements", and lists six stages with online assessments second and a video interview third. This is where a non-numerate degree gets tested rather than screened, and the test is short, timed and entirely practisable. Our free numerical reasoning practice runs the same shapes of question against a clock.
The Core Principles exams, while you are working. The IFoA's curriculum page, read on 2026-09-10, publishes recommended study hours for each of them: 200 for CS1, 250 for CS2, 250 for CM1, 200 for CM2, 150 each for CB1 and CB2, and 80 for CB3. That is the real maths requirement of this career, and it arrives while you are working full time. A maths degree does not remove it. It rehearses it.
The free readiness quiz scores the rest of what an employer screens on.
What a non-maths applicant puts on the page instead
Three things, and the first is not optional.
State your A-level grades plainly, Maths included. Several of the rules quoted above run entirely on that grade. A CV that lists a degree and no A-levels reads, to a screener holding a rule about A-level Maths, as a grade being hidden. Subjects and grades, one line.
One technical project you can be questioned on. A model, a script, a dashboard, a piece of coursework taken past the mark scheme. Its job is to turn "numerate" from a claim into something you did, and it only does that if you can say where the data came from, what you chose, what you rejected and how you checked the answer.
Evidence of numerical work outside a lecture theatre. Cashing up a till, a society budget you owned, a rota you built, a set of accounts you reconciled. Each of them gives a reviewer something to ask a second question about, which is the only test a CV line ever has to pass. The CV guide sets out the rubric a reviewer works through, and the free CV check scores your own against it.
What not to do: write a paragraph explaining the degree. On a form that filters on a grade the explanation is not read, and on a form that does not, it was never needed.
What an exemption actually buys
Exemptions are the one real thing a maths or actuarial degree buys, so it is worth being precise about them.
The IFoA's exam exemptions hub, read on 2026-09-10, describes them as "recognition of prior learning for IFoA members who have completed a qualification that is equivalent to our examinations", and splits them by route: Route A is an "IFoA accredited university course or modules", Route D a "Non-accredited university course or modules".
Route A is the accredited-degree door. Route D is the one for everyone else, and it is narrow. The IFoA's Route D page, read on 2026-09-10, is for anyone who has "completed an actuarial or maths based degree from a university that we do not have an IFoA examination exemption agreement with", lets you apply for exemptions from "CS1, CB1 or CB2 examinations", and adds that "Your degree awarding date cannot be older than 5 years from the date of when you submit your examination exemption application".
So what an exemption takes off you is study hours against a subject: 200 of them for CS1, on the curriculum page above. Worth having, and not a hiring requirement. None of the entry rules quoted in this article mentions an exemption at all. Our comparison of an actuarial science degree against a maths degree works the choice through if you are still picking a course, and the IFoA exams guide has the full subject structure.
What to do this month if your degree is not numerate
It is September 2026, which is early in the 2027 cycle rather than late.
- Check the windows before the requirements. LCP's graduate programme page, read on 2026-09-10, says applications "will open on Monday 28 September 2026" and are "due to close on Friday 23 October 2026", then warns that "we may close applications as early as Friday 9 October 2026". Aon's page, read the same day, says "Applications for our UK Graduate Programme open each Autumn" and showed every 2026 stream closed. Hymans Robertson's says "Our application windows open in autumn". Dates for the rest of the market sit in the graduate scheme tracker, which is checked against employers' own pages rather than job boards.
- Fix your A-level line. Subjects, grades, one line, near the top.
- Sit one numerical test cold, then another after a week of practice. If the two scores are close, you already have your evidence. If they are far apart, that is the thing to fix before the end of September.
- Finish one project. Small, finished, and with a check in it that shares no workings with the calculation it is checking.
- Read the advert, not this article. Every rule quoted here was on the page on 2026-09-10, and the pattern that fits nine firms will not fit the tenth.
If you are choosing A-levels rather than applying, the grade side is in A-levels and Highers for becoming an actuary.
What to do next
Practise the thing that actually tests a non-numerate applicant: the free numerical reasoning practice, then the readiness quiz for everything around it. To understand the work before you argue you are suited to it, what actuaries actually do is free to read from our Become an actuary course. And if you want a qualified actuary to say whether your degree is being sold well enough on the page, that is the paid CV review.