Enter your outstanding balance, salary, interest rate, and loan plan to see when your student loan could be cleared — or whether it reaches the write-off date. Covers all UK plans (Plan 1, 2, 4, 5, and Postgraduate).
This is a projection calculator, not financial advice. Figures depend entirely on your inputs and actual repayments will vary with salary changes, interest rate changes, and HMRC threshold adjustments.
Unlike a commercial loan, UK student loan repayments are income-contingent: you only repay when you earn above a plan-specific threshold, and the amount you repay is a fixed percentage of what you earn above that threshold — not a fixed monthly instalment. For most graduates on Plan 2 (English/Welsh students who started between 2012 and 2022) the repayment rate is 9% of income above £28,470 per year (2025/26).
Interest accrues on the outstanding balance every year. If your salary is low relative to your balance, the interest added each year can exceed the repayments you make — meaning the balance grows over time rather than shrinking. At the end of the write-off period the remaining balance disappears entirely, with no impact on your credit record.
Enter your outstanding balance, gross annual salary, loan plan, interest rate, and an optional salary growth assumption. Click Calculate to see whether your balance clears before the write-off date — and if so, in which year — along with the total amount you will have repaid and the total interest that accrues.
The calculator applies the plan's current repayment threshold each year to determine what fraction of your salary goes toward the loan, then adds interest on the remaining balance. If the balance reaches zero, the cleared year is shown. If it does not, the balance is written off at the plan cap.
The interest rate on UK student loans is not fixed — it is linked to the Retail Price Index (RPI) and, for some plans, also your income level. Plan 2 interest ranges from RPI to RPI plus 3%; Plan 1 is capped at the lower of RPI or base rate plus 1%; Plan 5 is capped at RPI; Postgraduate is RPI plus 3%.
Because the rate changes every year and varies with RPI, using a single rate is a simplification. Try a range — for example, 4–8% — to see how sensitive the cleared/written-off outcome is. Small differences in the assumed rate can shift the outcome from “clears in year 20” to “written off.”
The calculator uses 2026/27 repayment thresholds (Plan 1 £26,900, Plan 2 £29,385, Plan 4 £33,795, Plan 5 £25,000, Postgraduate £21,000). Interest is applied to the balance at the start of each year; repayments are deducted after interest is added. Salary grows by the percentage you specify, applied at the end of each year for the following year's calculation. For simplicity this standalone calculator holds the thresholds at their current level rather than projecting future uprating — in practice Plan 1 and Plan 4 thresholds rise each April, which would reduce repayments slightly for lower earners over time, so this is a conservative estimate.
The figures are projections for planning purposes only. Actual repayments are collected by HMRC through PAYE and depend on your real income, threshold changes, and policy decisions that cannot be predicted in advance.
Write-off timing depends on your loan plan. Plan 1 loans (most pre-2012 English/Welsh, and most Scottish/NI students) are written off 25 years after the April you were first due to repay. Plan 2 loans (English/Welsh students who started between 2012 and summer 2023) are written off after 30 years. Plan 4 loans (Scottish students, from September 1998) are also written off after 30 years. Plan 5 loans (English students starting from August 2023 onwards) are written off after 40 years. Postgraduate loans are written off after 30 years. The write-off date applies regardless of how much is outstanding — the remaining balance disappears without affecting your credit record.
UK student loan repayments are income-contingent: you repay a percentage of your income above a plan-specific threshold, only while you earn enough. For Plan 1, 2, 4, and 5 loans the rate is 9% of income above the threshold. For Postgraduate loans it is 6% above a separate, lower threshold. In 2025/26 the repayment thresholds are: Plan 1 £26,065; Plan 2 £28,470; Plan 4 £32,745; Plan 5 £25,000; Postgraduate £21,000. If your income falls below the threshold in any year, you make no repayments that year — but interest still accrues. You cannot overpay to reduce future mandatory repayments (though voluntary early repayments are possible via the Student Loans Company).
Your plan depends on when and where you studied. Plan 1 applies to most UK students who started before September 2012 in England and Wales, or before September 1998 in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Plan 2 applies to English and Welsh students who started on or after 1 September 2012 up to and including the 2022/23 cohort. Plan 4 applies to Scottish students who started on or after 1 September 1998. Plan 5 applies to English students starting from August 2023 onwards. Postgraduate loans cover Master's and Doctoral loans taken out from August 2016. If you have more than one loan type (for example, an undergraduate Plan 2 and a Postgraduate loan), repayments run concurrently on separate schedules. You can confirm your loan type on your payslip or through the Student Loans Company online service.
Yes — interest accrues on your outstanding balance every year, regardless of whether you are repaying. For Plan 2 loans the interest rate is linked to the Retail Price Index (RPI) and can range from RPI to RPI plus 3%, depending on your income. For Plan 1 the rate is the lower of RPI or the Bank of England base rate plus 1%. Plan 5 interest is capped at RPI. Postgraduate loan interest is RPI plus 3%. In practice, the interest rate often exceeds the repayment rate for lower-to-middle earners, which means the outstanding balance can grow before being written off — this calculator lets you model that directly by entering your own interest rate assumption.
Want to see how your student loan deduction affects your take-home pay? Use our salary after tax calculator to see the full picture of income tax, National Insurance, and student loan repayments in one place. For longer-term savings planning, the ISA calculator projects tax-free growth, and the compound interest calculator models how regular savings can grow over time. Once your loan is cleared, the pension calculator can help you redirect those freed-up repayments into retirement savings.
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