Plot No. 78 · Money & Finance
Student Loan Repayment Calculator (UK)
Estimate your monthly UK student loan repayment from your salary and repayment plan. Unlike a fixed loan payment, income-contingent plans only take a percentage of what you earn above a threshold, so repayments rise and fall automatically with your salary.
You repay 9% of income above the 2026/27 threshold of £29,385 on Plan 2, regardless of how much you originally borrowed. This is the payslip deduction only, so it does not add interest or project a write-off date.
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UK student loan thresholds for 2026/27
These are the figures the calculator above uses, published by gov.uk and applying from 6 April 2026. Payroll works to the per-period threshold rather than the annual one, which is why the monthly and weekly columns matter: they are what your employer compares each payslip against. gov.uk truncates those to the penny rather than rounding, and so does this table.
| Plan | Yearly | Monthly | Weekly | Rate | Balance written off |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plan 1 | £26,900 | £2,241.66 | £517.30 | 9% | 25 years after the April you first became due to repay |
| Plan 2 | £29,385 | £2,448.75 | £565.09 | 9% | 30 years after the April you first became due to repay |
| Plan 4 | £33,795 | £2,816.25 | £649.90 | 9% | 30 years after the April you first became due to repay |
| Plan 5 | £25,000 | £2,083.33 | £480.76 | 9% | 40 years after the April you first became due to repay |
| Postgraduate Loan | £21,000 | £1,750.00 | £403.84 | 6% | 30 years after the April you first became due to repay |
Write-off dates are counted from the April you first became due to repay, not from the day you graduated or cleared your last payment. Plan 1 loans taken before 1 September 2006 and Plan 4 loans taken before 1 August 2007 are instead cancelled at 65, or at 30 years if that comes first.
Which plan you are on
Nobody chooses their plan. It follows from where you studied and when the course started, and it is printed on your Student Loans Company account and usually on your payslip.
- Plan 1. Started an English or Welsh undergraduate course before September 2012, or a Northern Irish one at any time. Repayments start above £26,900 at 9%.
- Plan 2. Started an English or Welsh undergraduate course between September 2012 and July 2023. Repayments start above £29,385 at 9%.
- Plan 4. Studied in Scotland and took a loan from the Student Awards Agency Scotland. Repayments start above £33,795 at 9%.
- Plan 5. Started an English or Welsh undergraduate course from August 2023 onwards. Repayments start above £25,000 at 9%.
- Postgraduate Loan. Took an English or Welsh master's or doctoral loan, repaid on top of any undergraduate plan. Repayments start above £21,000 at 6%.
Monthly repayment by salary and plan
Every cell is the same sum the calculator does: salary minus the plan's threshold, times the plan's rate, divided by twelve. A dash means the salary is below that plan's threshold, so nothing is deducted at all. Notice how little comes off just above a threshold: on Plan 2 a £30,000 salary repays £4.61 a month, because only £615 of it is above the line.
| Salary | Plan 1 | Plan 2 | Plan 4 | Plan 5 | Postgraduate Loan |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £22,000 | - | - | - | - | £5.00 |
| £25,000 | - | - | - | - | £20.00 |
| £27,500 | £4.50 | - | - | £18.75 | £32.50 |
| £30,000 | £23.25 | £4.61 | - | £37.50 | £45.00 |
| £32,000 | £38.25 | £19.61 | - | £52.50 | £55.00 |
| £35,000 | £60.75 | £42.11 | £9.04 | £75.00 | £70.00 |
| £40,000 | £98.25 | £79.61 | £46.54 | £112.50 | £95.00 |
| £45,000 | £135.75 | £117.11 | £84.04 | £150.00 | £120.00 |
| £50,000 | £173.25 | £154.61 | £121.54 | £187.50 | £145.00 |
| £60,000 | £248.25 | £229.61 | £196.54 | £262.50 | £195.00 |
| £70,000 | £323.25 | £304.61 | £271.54 | £337.50 | £245.00 |
| £80,000 | £398.25 | £379.61 | £346.54 | £412.50 | £295.00 |
Figures are the payslip deduction for one plan on that gross salary, before tax and National Insurance and before any pension contribution. They do not project a payoff date, because interest and the write-off clock decide that rather than the deduction itself. To see what lands in your account after all deductions, the take-home pay calculator runs the whole payslip.
Holding an undergraduate and a postgraduate loan at once
They do not merge, and one does not replace the other. Each is charged separately against its own threshold and the two deductions appear on the same payslip. On £35,000 with Plan 2 and a Postgraduate Loan:
- Plan 2: £35,000 minus £29,385 is £5,615, at 9% that is £505.35 a year, or £42.11 a month.
- Postgraduate Loan: £35,000 minus £21,000 is £14,000, at 6% that is £840.00 a year, or £70.00 a month.
- Together: £1,345.35 a year, or £112.11 a month, which is 3.84% of the whole salary.
Above the higher threshold the two rates simply stack, so someone on Plan 2 plus a Postgraduate Loan is paying 15% of every extra pound. That is worth knowing before taking a pay rise at face value: the take-home pay calculator and the hourly to salary calculator both help translate a headline figure into what you keep.
Four things that surprise people
- The balance does not change the payment. Someone who borrowed £20,000 and someone who borrowed £60,000 pay exactly the same on the same salary and plan. The balance only decides whether you clear it before the write-off date.
- Lose the job, pay nothing. Fall below the threshold and the deduction stops that pay period, on its own, with nothing to arrange. This is why the deduction behaves far more like a graduate tax than like the fixed monthly payment of an ordinary loan.
- Overpaying is usually not the win it looks like. Voluntary payments are not refundable, and on a plan you will never clear before write-off they buy nothing at all. Run the numbers before choosing it over a savings goal or a pension contribution.
- Self-employed repayments come through Self Assessment. There is no payslip to deduct from, so the same percentage is collected with your tax bill, worked out on the year rather than the pay period.
Frequently asked questions
How is UK student loan repayment worked out?
You repay a fixed percentage, 9 percent for Plans 1, 2, 4 and 5, or 6 percent for a Postgraduate Loan, of whatever you earn above your plan's threshold. It is not based on how much you borrowed and does not shrink your balance faster if you earn less.
Which plan am I on?
It depends on where and when you studied. English and Welsh undergraduates from 2012 to 2022 are usually Plan 2, from 2023 onward usually Plan 5, Scottish and Northern Irish undergraduates are usually Plan 1 or 4, and anyone with a postgraduate master's or doctoral loan repays that separately.
Do these thresholds change?
Yes, the government resets them each April and they do not always rise with inflation. This calculator uses the 2026/27 figures published on gov.uk: 26,900 pounds on Plan 1, 29,385 pounds on Plan 2, 33,795 pounds on Plan 4, 25,000 pounds on Plan 5 and 21,000 pounds on a Postgraduate Loan. Plan 2 rose for 2026/27 after being frozen at 27,295 pounds since 2023, while Plan 5 stays frozen at 25,000 pounds.
How much student loan do I pay back on a 30,000 pound salary?
On a 30,000 pound salary in 2026/27 it is 23.25 pounds a month on Plan 1, 4.61 pounds on Plan 2, nothing at all on Plan 4 because the threshold is 33,795 pounds, 37.50 pounds on Plan 5 and 45 pounds on a Postgraduate Loan. The spread is that wide because only the slice of salary above each threshold is charged, so a salary sitting just above one threshold produces almost nothing while the same salary well above a lower threshold produces a real deduction.
Do I repay a master's loan and an undergraduate loan at the same time?
Yes, and they are worked out separately then added together. A Postgraduate Loan takes 6 percent of income above 21,000 pounds on top of the 9 percent your undergraduate plan takes above its own threshold, so on Plan 2 and a Postgraduate Loan together you are effectively paying 15 percent of everything above 29,385 pounds, plus 6 percent of the band between 21,000 and 29,385 pounds.
Why did my student loan deduction jump in a bonus month?
Payroll applies the threshold per pay period, not per year, so a month you were paid 4,000 pounds is treated as if you earned that every month. On Plan 2 the monthly threshold is 2,448.75 pounds, and everything above it that month is charged at 9 percent. If your total earnings for the tax year end up below the annual threshold, gov.uk says you can ask the Student Loans Company for a refund once HMRC has confirmed your annual income after the tax year ends.
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