Student loan repayment calculator
How do I check my student loan repayments are correct?
How are student loan repayments calculated?
Student loans — tuition fees, maintenance, and postgrad — are paid back as a percentage of what you earn over a certain threshold.
The rate (either 6 or 9%) and the threshold (typically between £20k-£27k or so) both depend on your loan "plan". Your plan is based on where you were living when you took the loan, when you took out the loan and whether it's for undergrad or postgrad studies.
For the current payment year, which started in April 2022, the repayment threshold and repayment percentage for each plan are as follows:
• Plan 2 is for students who started studying after 1 September 2012. This is the current student loan type in England & Wales.
• Plan 4 is the student loan type for Scottish students.
• Postgraduate loans are for courses like a Masters or PhD.
If you started a student loan before 1998 there was a different loan system in place – we don’t cover that in this article!
| Loan | Note | Current earnings repayment threshold | Repayment percentage |
| Plan 1 | Before September 2012 & Northern Ireland | £19,895 | 9% |
| Plan 2 | Loans after September 2012 | £27,295 | 9% |
| Postgraduate | Loans for Postgraduate courses | £21,000 | 6% |
| Plan 4 | For Scottish students | £25,000 | 9% |
If you have a Postgraduate loan and a Plan 1, Plan 2, or Plan 4 loan, you pay back 6% of your income over the Postgraduate Loan threshold and you’ll also pay back 9% of your income over the Plan 1, Plan 2 or Plan 4 threshold.
So, if you earn more - you pay more; if you earn less - you pay less; if you earn below the threshold you pay nothing.
Most loans are written off 30 years after they started, regardless of how much has been repaid.
How do I repay my student loan?
- If you’re employed, repayments are taken out of your salary at the same time as tax and National Insurance.
Check your payslips to see how much is being deducted and make sure your employer has you on the right plan. - If you’re self-employed, repayments are calculated from your tax return and payments are made at the same time as you pay tax (31 January). You'll need to register with HMRC, file a tax return and pay. untied helps with all this. Sign up here for a free 30 day trial.
- If you’re an employee and also do a tax return, you need to include how much of your loan you’ve paid off during the year, on your self-assessment tax return. untied helps you include any student loan payments in the right place on your self-assessment tax return. Sign up here for a free 30 day trial.
Don’t forget, you can also make extra payments or pay off some/all of your loan early without penalty.
Does the student loan repayment threshold change?
In general, the repayment threshold increases each year, but there are rumours that the government will lower the repayment thresholds.
Lowering the threshold will affect the cash in your pocket in two ways. First, more people will be paying back loans. And second, people already making repayments will be paying back more.
Loan repayments can hit hard and mean that you end up getting a lot less in your pay than you expect - for many, it's effectively adding another 9% tax to your income. Proportionately, a reduction in the repayment threshold will most affect those who earn less.
Use our student loan repayment calculator above to see what impact a reduction in the repayment threshold might have in your pocket.
Need to do a self-assessment tax return?
untied can file your self-assessment tax return directly from your phone. The untied Pro app helps you add any student loan repayments already made through your employer to your tax return, and allows HMRC to calculate how much you need to repay.