How this calculator works
This tool covers two different questions, depending on where you are. The Forecast tab estimates how much debt you'll have by the time you graduate, if you haven't started yet or are partway through. The Repayment tab, for anyone already out and earning, projects how your existing balance changes over time based on your plan, salary, and expected pay growth.
Forecasting works by adding your tuition fee loan and maintenance loan together each year, applying interest to the running balance, then moving to the next year. Fees rise with inflation after the first year, currently capped at £9,790 for 2026/27, rising to £10,050 in 2027/28. Maintenance loan maximums differ by nation and living arrangement, and the tool prefills a reasonable figure for your circumstances, though the real amount is means-tested, so most students receive less than the maximum shown.
Repayment projection is where the plans genuinely diverge from each other. Every plan charges 9% of your income above its threshold (6% for the Postgraduate Loan), but interest works completely differently. Plans 1, 4, and 5 charge a fixed rate for everyone. Plan 2 doesn't, its interest rate moves with your income every single year, from RPI alone for lower earners up to a capped ceiling for higher earners, recalculated automatically as your projected salary grows through the term.
Selecting Scotland with a Plan 4 loan while also holding a Postgraduate loan combines both into a single balance and repayment stream, matching how the Student Loans Company actually administers them for Scottish borrowers. Everywhere else, undergraduate and postgraduate loans run as two separate balances, each correctly using its own interest rate rather than sharing one.
Understanding your inputs
On the Forecast tab, choose your home nation and where you're studying separately, since a Scottish student studying in Scotland pays no tuition fee at all, while the same student studying in England would. Course Years and whether you're taking the Tuition Fee Loan and Maintenance Loan (most people take both) determine what accumulates each year.
On the Repayment tab, Undergraduate Plan is the single field most people get wrong. If you're not sure which plan you're on, our student loan repayment guide covers how to work it out from your start date and nation, since it isn't always obvious, especially the Plan 2 versus Plan 5 split for English students.
Postgraduate Loan is a separate yes/no toggle, since plenty of people are repaying both an undergraduate and a postgraduate loan at the same time, and they're charged independently.
Salary Growth assumes steady annual increases. Real careers rarely move in a straight line, so treat the long-range projection as a broad shape, not a precise forecast of any single year.
Worked example
Forecasting: an England-domiciled student studying in England, living away from home outside London, on a 3-year course, taking the full tuition and maintenance loan each year. Year one borrows £20,620 (£9,790 tuition plus £10,830 maintenance), accumulating £845.42 in interest at the Plan 5 rate of 4.1%. By year three, having borrowed £62,649.34 in total across the three years, the balance including accumulated interest reaches £67,905.39 at graduation, already noticeably above what was actually borrowed.
Repaying: that same graduate, now on Plan 2 with a genuinely representative £30,000 remaining balance, starts their first job at £32,000 with 3% average annual pay growth. Because Plan 2's interest rate climbs as income rises, and because 9% repayments on a modest starting salary are small relative to the interest accruing, the balance actually grows for most of the term, reaching around £48,299 by year 30, at which point the entire remaining balance is written off. Over those 30 years they'll have repaid £57,677.70 in total, more than double the original £30,000, without ever fully clearing it. This is a completely normal outcome for Plan 2, not a sign anything has gone wrong, and it's the reason Plan 2 is often described as working more like a graduate tax than a conventional loan.
2026/27 figures used in this tool
| Plan | Threshold | Interest | Write-off |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plan 1 | £26,900 | 4.1% (RPI) | 25 years |
| Plan 2 | £29,385 | 4.1%–6%, income-based | 30 years |
| Plan 4 (Scotland) | £33,795 | 4.1% (RPI) | 30 years |
| Plan 5 | £25,000 | 4.1% (RPI) | 40 years |
| Postgraduate | £21,000 | 6% (capped) | 30 years |
| 2026/27 tuition and maintenance | Amount |
|---|---|
| Tuition fee cap (England, Wales, Scotland students studying in England) | £9,790 |
| Tuition fee cap (Northern Ireland, studying in NI) | £4,985 |
| Tuition fee (Scotland, studying in Scotland) | £0, paid directly by SAAS |
| Maintenance loan, England, away from home, outside London | Up to £10,830 |
| Postgraduate Master's loan, England | Up to £13,206 |
Scottish and Northern Irish postgraduate funding run through separate schemes, SAAS and Student Finance NI, with different terms to the England/Wales Postgraduate Loan modelled here. If forecasting a Scottish or NI postgraduate course, treat these figures as a rough guide and confirm the real maximum directly with SAAS or Student Finance NI. Our guide comparing student finance across all four UK nations covers how the systems differ.
Ask your university or Student Finance: exactly how much maintenance loan you're actually entitled to before relying on this forecast, since it's means-tested against household income and the maximum shown is only what's available at the lowest income band. Most students receive less than the maximum.
Common Mistakes
The most damaging one is panicking at a large or growing Plan 2 balance and rushing to overpay it. For most graduates, the loan behaves like an income-linked tax rather than conventional debt, written off after 30 years regardless of the balance remaining. Whether overpaying makes sense depends on whether you're on track to clear it naturally before write-off, which for many middle-income graduates, they aren't.
Another is assuming all plans charge the same interest. Plan 2's rate changes every year with your income, while Plans 1, 4, and 5 don't move beyond the annual RPI-linked update, a materially different mechanic that catches people comparing plans directly.
People also frequently forget that postgraduate and undergraduate loans are repaid simultaneously, not one after the other. Someone with both is paying 9% above one threshold and 6% above another threshold, from the same salary, at the same time, not 9% and then 6% once the first is cleared.
Finally, confusing Plan 2 and Plan 5 is extremely common for English students, since both cover undergraduates and the only real difference is start date. Getting it wrong changes your repayment threshold by over £4,000 and could mean you're repaying, or not repaying, incorrectly for years without realising.
Sources and verification
Figures verified against the Student Loans Company, GOV.UK, Student Finance Wales and Student Finance England guidance published for the 2026/27 academic year, checked on 03 September 2026.
Repayment thresholds, rates and write-off periods: GOV.UK and House of Commons Library. Tuition fee caps: Department for Education. Maintenance loan maximums: Student Finance England, Student Finance Wales, SAAS, and Student Finance NI. Postgraduate loan maximums (England and Wales): Student Finance England and Student Finance Wales directly. Interest rates for 2026/27: DfE announcements of 7 April 2026 and 10 August 2026.