Plan thresholds to 2025/26
Plan 5 Student Loan Repayment Calculator
Plan 5 student loan: 9% of earnings over £25,000, interest at RPI, written off after 40 years. See your repayment timeline and total cost.
- Your balance
- With £0/month overpayment
The balance is written off in Apr 2059 with £51,490 still outstanding. Total repaid over the loan's life: £71,001.
| Year | Balance | Balance with overpayment |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | £45,000 | £45,000 |
| 1 | £46,035 | £46,035 |
| 2 | £47,052 | £47,052 |
| 3 | £48,047 | £48,047 |
| 4 | £49,021 | £49,021 |
| 5 | £49,969 | £49,969 |
| 6 | £50,890 | £50,890 |
| 7 | £51,781 | £51,781 |
| 8 | £52,639 | £52,639 |
| 9 | £53,462 | £53,462 |
| 10 | £54,246 | £54,246 |
| 11 | £54,989 | £54,989 |
| 12 | £55,686 | £55,686 |
| 13 | £56,336 | £56,336 |
| 14 | £56,934 | £56,934 |
| 15 | £57,475 | £57,475 |
| 16 | £57,957 | £57,957 |
| 17 | £58,375 | £58,375 |
| 18 | £58,725 | £58,725 |
| 19 | £59,001 | £59,001 |
| 20 | £59,199 | £59,199 |
| 21 | £59,314 | £59,314 |
| 22 | £59,340 | £59,340 |
| 23 | £59,272 | £59,272 |
| 24 | £59,103 | £59,103 |
| 25 | £58,828 | £58,828 |
| 26 | £58,440 | £58,440 |
| 27 | £57,931 | £57,931 |
| 28 | £57,296 | £57,296 |
| 29 | £56,525 | £56,525 |
| 30 | £55,612 | £55,612 |
| 31 | £54,547 | £54,547 |
| 32 | £53,323 | £53,323 |
| 33 | £51,490 | £51,490 |
Information
Plan 5 is the repayment plan for students in England who started an undergraduate course on or after 1 August 2023. You repay 9% of everything you earn above the £25,000 threshold, taken automatically through your pay, and interest is charged at RPI alone, with no RPI-plus-3% taper. Any remaining balance is written off 40 years after repayments first became due.
Plan 5 vs Plan 2. Compared with Plan 2, Plan 5 has a lower threshold (£25,000 vs £27,295), plain-RPI interest, and a much longer 40-year term. The lower threshold and longer term mean more borrowers repay more in total, over more of their working life, even though the interest rate itself is gentler. This calculator projects your balance to the write-off date so you can see whether you clear it or it's cancelled, and what it costs you in total.
What's simplified. The projection uses a single salary growing at a flat rate and holds RPI and the base rate constant. It models the PAYE repayment on your salary only. Open the full planner to model a real income path over the loan's 40-year life.
FAQ
- How is Plan 5 different from Plan 2?
Plan 5 is for courses starting on or after 1 August 2023. It has a lower repayment threshold (£25,000 vs Plan 2's £27,295), a longer term (written off after 40 years, not 30), and plain-RPI interest with no RPI-plus-3% taper. The net effect is that more borrowers repay more, over a longer window, than under Plan 2.
- Will I ever actually pay off my student loan?
For a lot of mid-income graduates, no, and that's not a failure, it's how the system is designed. Repayments are a fixed percentage of what you earn above the threshold, while interest accrues on the whole balance. If interest outruns repayments, the balance grows until it's written off (25, 30, or 40 years after repayments were first due, depending on your plan) and the rest is cancelled. This calculator tells you which case you're in: look at the "Written off" figure.
- Should I overpay my student loan to clear it faster?
Only if you'd otherwise clear it before the write-off date. If your loan is heading for write-off anyway, every extra pound you pay just reduces a balance that was going to be cancelled, so you save nothing. Enter a monthly overpayment above and the calculator shows a red verdict ("you'd save nothing") or a green one ("saves money and clears it earlier"). When in doubt, that money usually does more in an ISA, a pension, or paying down higher-interest debt.
- How much will I repay each month?
9% of everything you earn above your plan's threshold (6% for a postgraduate Plan 3 loan), taken automatically through your pay. On a £35,000 salary with a £27,295 Plan 2 threshold that's about £58 a month. Earn below the threshold and you repay nothing that month, regardless of how much you owe.
- When does my loan get written off?
It depends on your plan: Plan 1 after 25 years, Plan 2, Plan 4 and postgraduate after 30 years, and Plan 5 after 40 years, counted from the April after you finished your course, when repayments first became due. The "Write-off date" figure shows the exact month for your inputs.
- Why does the region matter if my plan is the same?
Your plan sets the threshold, the percentage, and the write-off term, and those are UK-wide. The region sets the interest formula: England's plans are RPI-linked with a market-rate cap, Scotland and Northern Ireland charge the lower of base rate plus 1% or RPI, and Wales uses an income-tapered RPI rate. Pick where you took the loan out so the interest matches.
- Is this calculator up to date with current rates?
It uses the published per-plan thresholds and the statutory interest rules from our legislative data, and pre-fills the latest RPI and Bank of England base rate (shown, and editable, under Advanced). RPI and the base rate are held flat across the whole projection, a simplification, so treat the long-run figures as an indication.
Sources
- Repaying your student loan: what you pay (GOV.UK)
- Interest rates on student loans (GOV.UK)
Disclaimer
Not financial advice. The figures above are a projection from the inputs and assumptions you provided; your real repayments depend on your actual income each year and future changes to RPI. Check your statement at the Student Loans Company before making a decision based on these numbers.
