A UK student loan isn't really a loan — it works more like a graduate tax with an expiry date. You repay 9% of everything you earn above a threshold, and whatever's left after 25, 30 or 40 years simply vanishes. That design produces some genuinely strange outcomes: a graduate on £35,000 can repay £67,861 on a £45,000 loan and still have £40,197 written off.
So we built a year-by-year repayment simulator and ran it for every plan — Plan 1, Plan 2, Plan 4 and Plan 5 — across starting salaries from £25,000 to £100,000. Here's how long your loan actually lasts, what you'll really repay, and the salary you need to ever clear it.
Plan 2 is the plan most current repayers are on — and the one with the harshest arithmetic. With a typical £48,000 balance and interest running up to 6.2%, repayments at ordinary salaries never outrun the interest:
| Starting salary | Repayment /mo (yr 1) | How long it lasts | Total repaid | Written off at 30y |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £30,000 | £11 | Full 30 years | £6,551 | £120,628 |
| £35,000 | £49 | Full 30 years | £27,960 | £110,018 |
| £40,000 | £86 | Full 30 years | £49,369 | £97,197 |
| £45,000 | £124 | Full 30 years | £70,778 | £81,730 |
| £50,000 | £161 | Full 30 years | £92,187 | £63,102 |
| £60,000 | £236 | Cleared in 26 years | £106,288 | — |
| £70,000 | £311 | Cleared in 18 years | £83,200 | — |
| £80,000 | £386 | Cleared in 14 years | £73,453 | — |
| £100,000 | £536 | Cleared in 9 years | £64,674 | — |
The headline finding: in our model you need a starting salary of roughly £57,000 to ever clear a typical Plan 2 loan. Below that, it's a 30-year payroll deduction followed by a write-off. And notice the perverse peak: the £60,000 earner repays £106,288 — more than anyone else on the table — because they only just outrun the interest, clearing the loan in year 26 after paying 2.2× what they borrowed.
Plan 5 cut the interest rate (RPI only, no added percentage) but dropped the threshold to £25,000 and stretched the write-off to 40 years. The result: more graduates repay for most of their working life.
| Starting salary | Repayment /mo (yr 1) | How long it lasts | Total repaid | Written off at 40y |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £30,000 | £38 | Full 40 years | £33,931 | £99,416 |
| £35,000 | £75 | Full 40 years | £67,861 | £40,197 |
| £40,000 | £113 | Cleared in 36 years | £83,774 | — |
| £45,000 | £150 | Cleared in 27 years | £71,111 | — |
| £50,000 | £188 | Cleared in 22 years | £64,705 | — |
| £60,000 | £263 | Cleared in 15 years | £58,316 | — |
| £70,000 | £338 | Cleared in 12 years | £55,151 | — |
| £100,000 | £563 | Cleared in 7 years | £51,074 | — |
On a £40,000 salary you repay £83,774 on a £45,000 loan — 1.9× what you borrowed — and it takes 36 years to clear. The break-even starting salary to ever clear a typical Plan 5 balance is about £38,500.
Free UK student loan calculator — all plans, no signup, instant.
Older Plan 1 loans (and Scotland's Plan 4) carry smaller balances and lower interest, so they behave much more like normal loans:
| Starting salary | Plan 1 (£20k debt, 25y) | Plan 1 total repaid | Plan 4 (£25k debt, 30y) | Plan 4 total repaid |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £35,000 | Written off (£2,123 left) | £29,319 | Written off (£49,558 left) | £9,655 |
| £40,000 | Cleared in 17 years | £26,708 | Written off (£16,833 left) | £31,064 |
| £45,000 | Cleared in 13 years | £24,779 | Cleared in 24 years | £37,787 |
| £50,000 | Cleared in 10 years | £23,746 | Cleared in 17 years | £33,472 |
| £60,000 | Cleared in 7 years | £22,659 | Cleared in 11 years | £30,153 |
| £80,000 | Cleared in 5 years | £21,760 | Cleared in 7 years | £28,000 |
Break-even starting salaries: about £35,500 for Plan 1 and £43,000 for Plan 4 (the Scottish threshold is higher, so low earners repay very little — but the debt compounds while they don't).
| Plan | Typical balance | Write-off horizon | Starting salary needed to clear |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plan 1 | £20,000 | 25 years | ~£35,500 |
| Plan 5 | £45,000 | 40 years | ~£38,500 |
| Plan 4 | £25,000 | 30 years | ~£43,000 |
| Plan 2 | £48,000 | 30 years | ~£57,000 |
All figures computed by Tabutility, August 2026, using a year-by-year simulation. Repayment thresholds are the published 2025/26 figures: Plan 1 £26,065, Plan 2 £28,470, Plan 4 £32,745, Plan 5 £25,000; repayments are 9% of income above threshold. Interest: 3.2% for Plans 1, 4 and 5; Plan 2 slides from 3.2% at the threshold to 6.2% at £51,245+ (published 2025/26 rates, held constant). Salaries, repayment thresholds and the endpoints of Plan 2's interest-rate income band (£28,470–£51,245) are all assumed to grow 3% a year, so results are effectively in today's-money terms. Write-off horizons assume the post-September-2006 Plan 1 rules (25 years) and post-2007 Plan 4 rules (30 years); pre-September-2006 Plan 1 loans are instead cancelled at age 65, and pre-2007 Scottish (Plan 4) loans at age 65 or 30 years, whichever comes first — cohorts our tables don't model. Typical balances reflect common amounts at graduation; your own balance, salary path and future rate changes will move the numbers. This analysis shows how the system's mechanics play out — it is not financial advice. You're free to cite or reproduce these tables with a link to this page.
Only if you earn well above average — our model puts the break-even starting salary around £57,000 for a typical £48,000 balance. Below that, expect 30 years of deductions and a write-off.
9% of everything above your plan's threshold (6% for Postgraduate Loans). On £35,000 that's roughly £49/month on Plan 2 or £75/month on Plan 5.
For loans taken out from September 2006: 25 years for Plan 1, 30 years for Plans 2 and 4, 40 years for Plan 5 — counted from the April you first became liable to repay. Older loans have different rules: pre-September-2006 Plan 1 loans are cancelled when you turn 65, and pre-2007 Scottish (Plan 4) loans are cancelled at age 65 or 30 years after the April you were first due to repay, whichever comes first.
Only if you'd clear it anyway. If your salary path leads to write-off, overpayments repay money you'd never have owed. High earners who'll clear the loan fast can save real interest.
Plan 1, 2, 4, 5 and Postgraduate — monthly and annual figures, free.
Related reading: Mortgage Affordability on Every UK Salary · How to Calculate Salary After Tax · Second Job Tax UK