Student Loan Repayment Calculator 2026/27
Updated for the 2026/27tax year · Last updated
Select your loan plan(s) and enter your annual income to see your annual and monthly student loan repayment for 2026/27. If you have both an undergraduate and a postgraduate loan, tick both — repayments are calculated independently and deducted together.
Student loan repayments in the UK work differently from commercial loan repayments. You only repay when your income exceeds your plan’s threshold — below that figure, you make no repayments at all, regardless of how much you owe. When your income exceeds the threshold, you pay a fixed percentage only on the excess, not on your total income. This means someone earning just above the threshold pays very little, while someone earning significantly above it pays proportionally more.
The thresholds for 2026/27 are: Plan 1 (£24,990), Plan 2 (£28,470), Plan 4 — Scottish borrowers (£32,745), Plan 5 — English borrowers from August 2023 (£25,000), and Postgraduate Loan (£21,000). The repayment rate is 9% of income above the threshold for Plans 1, 2, 4, and 5, and 6% for the Postgraduate Loan.
Which plan you’re on depends on when and where you studied. Plan 1 covers English and Welsh borrowers who started before September 2012, plus all Scottish and Northern Irish borrowers (though Scottish borrowers with SAAS loans are on Plan 4). Plan 2 covers English and Welsh borrowers who started between September 2012 and July 2023. Plan 5 covers English borrowers starting from August 2023 onwards. If you hold a Master’s or Doctoral loan from Student Finance England or Wales, that is the Postgraduate Loan — it runs in parallel with your undergraduate plan repayments.
Loan plan(s)
Annual repayment
£588
Monthly repayment
£49
| Plan | Threshold | Annual |
|---|---|---|
| Plan 2 (9%) | £28,470 | £588 |
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How this calculator works
Repayments are calculated as a percentage of income above each plan’s threshold. If your income is below the threshold, you make no repayments at all — regardless of how much you owe. If your income is above the threshold, repayments apply only to the portion above it: a Plan 2 borrower earning £30,000 pays 9% of £1,530 (£30,000 minus the £28,470 threshold), not 9% of £30,000.
Multiple plans:If you hold both an undergraduate loan and a Postgraduate Loan, the calculator applies each plan’s rate and threshold independently. Both sets of repayments are deducted simultaneously from your payslip or via Self Assessment — they are not combined into a single figure. This means your total deduction is the sum of what each plan calculates separately.
Interest and write-off:Repayments do not directly pay down your capital in the same way as a commercial loan. Interest accrues throughout your repayment period — the rate varies by plan and income level. More importantly, any remaining balance is written off after the plan’s write-off period: 25 years for Plan 1 (from when you first became due to repay), 30 years for Plans 2 and 4, 40 years for Plan 5, and 30 years for the Postgraduate Loan. For many graduates on lower incomes, the loan may be largely or entirely written off without ever being fully repaid — making the “debt” function more like an income-related graduate contribution than a traditional loan.
Impact on take-home pay: Student loan deductions are taken after income tax and National Insurance. They do not reduce your taxable income or NI liability — they come out of your net earnings. This distinction matters when calculating your actual take-home pay; use the Take-Home Pay calculator to see the full picture including student loan alongside income tax and NI.