Student Loan Repayment Calculator UK 2026/27: Plan 1, 2, 4, 5 & Postgrad

Student loan repayments confuse people more than they should, mostly because nobody explains the one thing that matters: you are not paying off a debt in the normal sense, you are handing over a percentage of your income above a threshold until the loan gets cancelled. That distinction changes almost every decision, including whether you should bother overpaying at all.

Here is how a UK student loan repayment calculator works in 2026/27, the thresholds for each plan, and when the whole balance finally disappears.

The rule that applies to every plan

Whatever plan you are on, the mechanic is the same. You repay a fixed percentage of your income above your plan's threshold. Earn less than the threshold and you pay nothing. The percentages are 9% for undergraduate plans and 6% for postgraduate loans. The formula is blunt:

Repayment = (income − threshold) × rate

Because it is tied to income, not the balance, your payments fall automatically if your earnings drop, say during parental leave or redundancy. A commercial loan does not do that, and it is the main reason student loans behave differently from everything else you borrow.

The 2026/27 thresholds

Plan	Who it covers	Threshold	Rate	Written off
Plan 1	Pre-2012 England, NI & Scotland	£26,900	9%	25 yrs or age 65
Plan 2	2012–2023 England & Wales	£29,385	9%	30 years
Plan 4	Scottish students	£33,795	9%	30 yrs or age 65
Plan 5	From Aug 2023 England	£25,000	9%	40 years
Postgraduate	Masters & PhD	£21,000	6%	30 years

If you are not sure which plan you are on, it is on your student finance account and follows the year you started, not the year you graduated. Plan 5 borrowers only began mandatory deductions in April 2026, so a lot of recent graduates are meeting the deduction for the first time this tax year.

Worked example: Plan 2 at £40,000

Someone earning £40,000 on Plan 2 repays 9% of the £10,615 above the £29,385 threshold. That is £955 a year, about £80 a month taken through PAYE alongside tax and National Insurance. It is not a separate bill you forget to pay; it just arrives as a smaller payslip.

Push the same salary to £60,000 and the repayment climbs to £2,755 a year, because every pound between the threshold and your salary is caught at 9%. The threshold, not the rate, is what decides whether your repayment feels gentle or painful.

When does the loan get written off?

This is the part that flips the whole conversation. The loan is cancelled automatically after a set period, and the cancelled balance is not taxed. Plan 2 goes after 30 years, Plan 5 after 40, Plan 1 after 25 years or when you turn 65, whichever comes first, and postgraduate loans after 30 years. Plan 4 follows the 30-year or age-65 rule.

The uncomfortable truth for anyone staring at a five-figure balance: most borrowers never repay the full amount. Analysis from the Institute for Fiscal Studies suggests an average Plan 2 earner has roughly 80% of the original balance written off. For a lot of people, the loan functions less like a debt and more like a graduate tax that expires.

Should you overpay?

For most people, no, and this goes against the instinct to clear debts. If you will not repay the balance before write-off, every voluntary overpayment is money you hand to the government that would have been cancelled for free. The exceptions are real but narrow: you are a high earner who will clearly clear the balance anyway, or you have a small remaining balance on Plan 1 or Plan 4 where the low interest means it will not grow away from you.

If you are torn, run your own salary through the calculator and ask one question: am I projected to hit zero before the write-off year? If not, that money is usually better in a pension or ISA where it is actually yours.

Overseas and self-employed repayments

Live abroad and the Student Loans Company sets country-specific thresholds, often less generous, and you pay directly rather than through an employer. Self-employed borrowers repay through self assessment, with 9% (or 6% for postgrad) charged on profits above the threshold. If you have both employed and self-employed income, HMRC combines them, so a side business can quietly push you over.

FAQ