UK Student Loan Repayment Calculator
Monthly repayments, total interest, and write-off projections for Plans 1, 2, 4, 5, and Postgraduate loans.
Your loan
Student loan as a graduate tax
For many graduates โ especially on Plan 2 or Plan 5 โ the loan is likely to be written off before it is fully repaid. Understanding this changes how you should think about it.
Plan 5 โ the toughest plan
Introduced for England students starting from August 2023, Plan 5 extends the write-off period to 40 years and reduces the threshold to ยฃ25,000. Higher earners will pay more total than Plan 2; lower earners may pay less. Controversial politically.
Plan 4 โ Scotland's higher threshold
Scottish students benefit from a higher repayment threshold (ยฃ31,395 in 2024/25). This means lower earners pay significantly less per month than their English counterparts on Plan 2, and many pay nothing for the first several years of their career.
Postgraduate loan โ different rules
Postgraduate loans have a lower repayment threshold (ยฃ21,000) and a lower repayment rate (6%), and they can run alongside undergraduate repayments. Both amounts are deducted from your payslip.
Write-off is not free money
When a loan is written off, it is cancelled โ but you have already paid what you repaid. The question is not "how do I avoid repaying?" but rather "what is my expected total repayment given my career path?" โ which may be much less than the balance.
9% above threshold
Repayments are exactly 9% of income above the threshold (6% for postgrad). ยฃ30,000 salary on Plan 2: (ยฃ30,000 โ ยฃ27,295) ร 9% = ยฃ2,704.50/year = ยฃ225.38/month. You cannot pay more to reduce the balance faster on Plan 2 without triggering a different repayment structure.
Should you pay it off early?
Almost certainly not on Plan 2 or Plan 5. If your projection shows the loan being written off before repayment, extra voluntary payments only reduce a balance that would have been cancelled anyway. Use the money for pension, ISA, or other savings instead.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which plan am I on?
Plan 1: started higher education before September 2012 (England/Wales) or from September 1998 (Scotland/NI). Plan 2: started between September 2012 and July 2023 (England). Plan 4: Scottish students (SAAS). Plan 5: started from August 2023 (England). Postgraduate Loan: masters/doctoral loan taken from August 2016. Check your Student Loans Company account if unsure โ you may have multiple loans on different plans.
Can I see my student loan balance?
Yes โ log in to the Student Loans Company (SLC) portal at studentloan.slc.co.uk, or access it via your HMRC Personal Tax Account. Your balance updates annually in April after your end-of-year repayment statement. Note that interest is added continuously so the balance shown at any point may differ slightly from what you see calculated here.
What happens if I live or work abroad?
You still owe the loan and must make repayments. The Student Loans Company will assess repayments based on the equivalent income threshold for your country of residence (they have a table of country-specific thresholds). Failing to report your income when living abroad and missing repayments leads to a fixed repayment schedule being applied, which can be more expensive.
Does the write-off count as taxable income?
Currently, no โ UK student loan write-offs are not treated as taxable income. The balance is simply cancelled. This is different from some other types of debt forgiveness in other countries. No tax liability arises from the cancellation.
Understanding UK Student Loan Repayment
UK student loans work very differently from ordinary debt. You repay a fixed percentage of income above a threshold, repayments stop automatically if your income drops, the balance is written off after a set number of years, and unpaid amounts never affect your credit score. For most graduates this means the loan behaves far more like a temporary graduate tax than a traditional loan โ which completely changes whether overpaying makes sense.
Which plan you are on
Your plan depends on when and where you studied. Plan 1 covers pre-2012 English/Welsh students and Scottish/NI borrowers. Plan 2 covers English students who started between 2012 and 2023. Plan 4 is for Scottish borrowers and has the highest threshold. Plan 5 applies to English students starting from August 2023 and has the longest write-off period (40 years). The Postgraduate Loan sits on top with its own lower threshold and 6% rate. Many graduates hold two loans at once โ an undergraduate plan and a postgraduate loan โ repaid simultaneously through payroll.
How repayments are calculated
You repay 9% of everything you earn above your plan's threshold (6% for the Postgraduate Loan), deducted automatically through PAYE like income tax. On Plan 2 with a ยฃ27,295 threshold, someone earning ยฃ35,000 repays 9% of ยฃ7,705 โ about ยฃ693 a year, or ยฃ58 a month. Crucially, the repayment is based on income, not on the size of the balance. Earn less and you pay less; earn below the threshold and you pay nothing at all, with no penalty.
Interest and the write-off
Interest accrues (linked to RPI, sometimes plus a margin based on income), but for many borrowers the interest is academic: if your repayments over the loan's life never clear the balance, the remainder โ including all that accrued interest โ is simply cancelled at the write-off point (25, 30, or 40 years depending on plan). This is why a large headline balance can be misleading. What matters is your expected total repayment over your career, which is often far less than the balance shown on your statement.
Should you overpay?
For most Plan 2 and Plan 5 borrowers, voluntary overpayments are a mistake. If your projection shows the loan being written off before you clear it, every extra pound you pay only reduces a balance that would have been cancelled anyway โ money better directed to a pension, ISA, or mortgage deposit. Overpaying only benefits high earners who are on track to clear the loan well before write-off, where reducing the balance early genuinely saves interest. Run your own income trajectory before making a decision.
Living or working abroad
The loan does not disappear if you emigrate. You must notify the Student Loans Company and continue repaying based on the income threshold for your country of residence. Failing to report income while overseas leads to a fixed monthly repayment schedule โ often more expensive than income-based repayment โ so staying in contact with the SLC is the cheaper path even when you have left the UK.