Repaying your loans

You might not be thinking about how you’ll repay your student loan right now, but it’s really important to understand exactly what’s involved in student loan repayment for when the time comes to repay.

Tuition Fee Loans and Maintenance Loans have to be repaid - but not until you've finished or left your course and your income is over the repayment threshold, which is currently £25,000 a year, £2,083 a month or £480 a week.

Here's a guide to repaying your loans in three easy steps!

You'll be due to start repaying your loan the April after you finish or leave your course.

You only repay once you've left university or college and your income is over the repayment threshold.

If your income stops or falls below the threshold, your repayments will automatically stop.

If you’re employed, your employer will automatically take 9% of your income above the threshold at the same time you pay tax and National Insurance. Your employer tells HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) how much student loan you’ve repaid.

If you're self employed you'll repay directly to HMRC through self assessment.

After the end of the tax year HMRC tells us how much you've repaid that year and we apply it to your balance.

If you move abroad and don’t pay tax in the UK your monthly repayments will be based on the earnings threshold for your destination country and you’ll repay directly to us.

Any loan remaining after 30 years will be cancelled.

Repayments are based on your income, not what you borrowed.

You'll repay 9% of your income over the threshold. For example, if you're paid monthly and earn £2,250 before tax you'll repay 9% of the difference between what you earn and the threshold:

£2,250 - £2,083 = £167

9% of £167 = £15

So your student loan repayment would be £15 in that month.

Interest

Interest is charged from the day we make your first payment until your loan is paid off in full or cancelled.

The amount of interest charged is based on the UK Retail Price Index (RPI) and will vary depending on your circumstances. RPI is a measure of UK inflation. It measures changes to the cost of living in the UK.

The interest rate is updated once a year in September, using the RPI from March of that year.

For the latest interest rates go to our repayment quick start guide.