UK Student Loan Repayment Calculator

Nine percent of whatever you earn above your plan’s threshold (six percent for a postgraduate loan), taken through PAYE. On Plan 2, earning £5,000 a year above the threshold means £450 a year, or about £37.50 a month; earn below the threshold and you repay nothing that month. The balance still accrues interest, so many graduates never clear it before the write-off, and the total repaid is set by salary over the years rather than by the amount borrowed. This calculator projects both the monthly deduction and the lifetime total from the salary and growth you enter. That monthly figure is what a Plan 2 student loan calculator or a student finance repayment calculator returns; the plan only changes the threshold and rate. A student loan calculator UK graduates use has to know the plan, because a Plan 5 student loan calculator uses a lower threshold and a longer write-off than Plan 2, which changes the lifetime total more than the monthly figure.

9% of what you earn above your plan’s threshold, spread across the year by payroll — 6% for a Postgraduate Loan. On £35,000 a Plan 2 borrower repays 9% of (35,000 − 29,385) = £505 a year, about £42 a month. A Plan 5 borrower on the same salary repays 9% of (35,000 − 25,000) = £900 a year, £75 a month, because Plan 5’s threshold is lower. Earn below the threshold and nothing is taken.

The projection shows whether the balance clears under your entered salary path and assumed cancellation horizon. Future earnings, thresholds and interest rates can change the outcome.

Plans 1 and 4 use the lower of RPI or the relevant bank base rate plus 1%; Plan 5 uses RPI. Their current published rates are 4.1%. Plan 2 charges RPI below the repayment threshold rising to RPI + 3% at £52,885, but the Department for Education has capped it at 6% for the 2026/27 academic year. Postgraduate Loans charge RPI + 3%, also capped at 6%. Rates are set each September from the previous March’s RPI.

Plan 1: English or Welsh courses started before September 2012, and all Northern Irish students. Plan 2: English courses from September 2012 to July 2023, and Welsh courses from September 2012. Plan 4: Scottish students. Plan 5: English courses from August 2023, with repayments starting April 2026. Postgraduate: Master’s and Doctoral loans, repaid alongside an undergraduate plan. Your Student Loans Company statement says which.

This calculator does not recommend overpayments. They can save interest if they cause earlier clearance, but may reduce a balance that would otherwise be cancelled. Consider uncertain future earnings, other borrowing and access to cash before making an irreversible payment.