Student Loan Repayment Calculator

What this calculator does

• Works out repayments for Plan 1, Plan 2, Plan 4, Plan 5 and Postgraduate loans.
• Shows the repayment yearly, monthly and weekly.
• Makes clear that the amount owed does not affect the monthly repayment.
• Does not project when a loan will be cleared or written off.

How the calculation works

UK student loan repayments behave more like a graduate contribution than a conventional loan. Nothing is due on income up to your plan's threshold. Above it, you repay a fixed percentage of the excess: 9% for Plan 1, Plan 2, Plan 4 and Plan 5, and 6% for a Postgraduate loan. The thresholds differ substantially — £26,900 for Plan 1, £29,385 for Plan 2, £33,795 for Plan 4 in Scotland, £25,000 for Plan 5 and £21,000 for Postgraduate — so which plan you are on can change the repayment considerably at the same salary. The outstanding balance is irrelevant to the calculation: someone owing £15,000 and someone owing £60,000 on the same plan and the same salary repay exactly the same amount each month. Interest accrues on the balance and outstanding debt is written off after a period that depends on the plan, so many borrowers never repay in full.

Step by step

1. Convert entered income to an annual figure.
2. Subtract your plan's annual threshold.
3. If the result is zero or negative, no repayment is due.
4. Otherwise multiply the excess by 9%, or 6% for a Postgraduate loan.
5. Divide the annual figure into periodic amounts.

Worked example

Chloe earns £34,000 and is repaying a Plan 2 loan.

What was entered

The arithmetic

1. The Plan 2 annual threshold is £29,385.
2. Income above the threshold is £34,000 − £29,385 = £4,615.
3. The repayment rate is 9%, so the annual repayment is £415.35.
4. That is £34.61 a month, or £7.99 a week.
5. The balance outstanding does not enter the calculation at any point.

What the calculator returns

Key assumptions

• The plan you select is the plan you are actually on, which is recorded by the Student Loans Company rather than chosen.
• Repayments are estimated from annual income against the annual threshold.
• Income is treated as employment income subject to PAYE.

Limitations

• Real payroll assesses each pay period separately, so a bonus month can trigger a repayment even where annual income sits below the threshold — and the annual estimate will not show that.
• The calculator does not model interest, the outstanding balance, or the write-off date, so it cannot tell you when the loan will be cleared.
• Voluntary overpayments are not modelled, and for many borrowers they are not worthwhile.
• Self-employed borrowers repay through Self Assessment on a different assessment basis.
• Someone with both an undergraduate and a postgraduate loan repays on both simultaneously; select the undergraduate plan here and use the Take-Home Pay calculator to see the two together.

Common questions

Related calculators

• Take-Home Pay Calculator — See the repayment alongside Income Tax, National Insurance and pension in one take-home figure.
• UK Income Tax Calculator — Understand the Income Tax charged on the same income.
• Salary Sacrifice Calculator — Salary sacrifice reduces the income student loan repayments are assessed on.

Official sources

Every figure in this guide was checked against the sources below. Where a source could not confirm a figure, it is marked as requiring verification rather than presented as settled.

• Repaying your student loan: what you pay — GOV.UKPlan 1 £26,900, Plan 2 £29,385, Plan 4 £33,795, Plan 5 £25,000 at 9%; Postgraduate £21,000 at 6%
• Repaying your student loan — GOV.UKHow repayments are collected and which plan applies