Parental Leave Student Loan Impact Calculator
Understand how maternity, paternity, or shared parental leave affects your student loan repayments, balance growth, and potential refunds.
The Motherhood Penalty
During parental leave, repayments stop or reduce, but interest continues to accrue. You may be entitled to a refund if your annual income falls below the threshold.
Threshold: £29,385 | Interest: 6.0%
Maternity leave pays statutory rates for up to 39 weeks (about 9 months); anything beyond that is unpaid.
Employer schemes often top statutory pay up. Enhanced weeks use up the statutory entitlement rather than being paid on top of it.
Percentage of full salary during enhanced pay period
Outcome: no repayments due
Refund due: £252
Your pay for the tax year comes to £20,026, below the £29,385 Plan 2 annual threshold — so the £252 PAYE took in your full-pay months was not due, and you can claim all of it back.
Claim after 5 April, once your P60 confirms the year's pay. A refund goes back onto your balance and carries on accruing interest, so it buys cash flow rather than cancelling debt.
Your 2026-27 leave year, month by month
Pay for the tax year
£20,026
Plan 2 threshold £29,385 (2026-27)
Deducted this year
£252
£252 less than a full year at work
Interest added
£2,765
£706 of it in months with no pay
Balance at year end
£47,513
£255 higher than without leave
How this is worked out
(£2,916.67 − £2,448) × 9% = £42
A full-pay month on Plan 2, 2026-27. HMRC's published monthly threshold is £2,448 — not £29,385 ÷ 12 — and each month's deduction is rounded down to a whole pound.
How this is worked out
£29,385 − £20,026 = £9,359
Your pay for the whole tax year is £9,359 under the Plan 2 annual threshold, which is the test SLC applies to a refund claim — not the monthly one your employer applies each payday.
How this is worked out
£47,513 − £47,257 = £255
Extra balance at the end of the year: your leave year against twelve full-salary months, both run through the same month-by-month model rather than a one-line simple-interest estimate.
What this means for you
Across the 2026-27 tax year, with 12 months of maternity leave:
- You are paid £20,026 instead of £35,000, and pay £252 in student loan deductions instead of £504.
- Your loan accrues £2,765 in interest at 6.0%, of which £706 falls in months with no pay at all.
- 6 of 12 months have no deduction taken, because pay is below the £2,448 monthly threshold.
- Your pay for the year is below the annual threshold, so £252 is reclaimable after 5 April.
Long-term: your balance ends the year £255 higher than it would have without leave — about 6 months of your normal deduction. Anything still outstanding in April 2051 is written off, so for most borrowers that extra balance never turns into an extra payment.
Maternity leave pay, 2026-27
First 6 weeks:
90% of average weekly earnings, uncapped — £605.77/week for you
Weeks 7-39:
£194.32/week or 90% of earnings, whichever is lower — £194.32/week for you
Your statutory pay as a monthly figure:
£842
Weeks 40 to 52 of leave are unpaid. Employer schemes vary; the enhanced-pay fields above override the statutory figure for as long as they run.
The whole tax year, month by month
| Month | Status | Pay | Deduction | Interest | Balance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | Enhanced pay | £2,917 | £42 | £225 | £45,183 |
| Feb | Enhanced pay | £2,917 | £42 | £226 | £45,367 |
| Mar | Enhanced pay | £2,917 | £42 | £227 | £45,552 |
| Apr | Enhanced pay | £2,917 | £42 | £228 | £45,738 |
| May | Enhanced pay | £2,917 | £42 | £229 | £45,924 |
| Jun | Enhanced pay | £2,917 | £42 | £230 | £46,112 |
| Jul | Statutory pay | £842 | £0 (paused) | £231 | £46,342 |
| Aug | Statutory pay | £842 | £0 (paused) | £232 | £46,574 |
| Sep | Statutory pay | £842 | £0 (paused) | £233 | £46,807 |
| Oct | Unpaid leave | £0 | £0 (paused) | £234 | £47,041 |
| Nov | Unpaid leave | £0 | £0 (paused) | £235 | £47,276 |
| Dec | Unpaid leave | £0 | £0 (paused) | £236 | £47,513 |
| Year | 9 paid, 3 unpaid | £20,026 | £252 | £2,765 | £47,513 |
How to claim your £252
Your pay for the 2026-27 tax year is £20,026, which is £9,359 below the Plan 2 annual threshold of £29,385. Every deduction taken during the year is reclaimable.
How to claim:
- Wait until the tax year ends on 5 April
- Check your P60 to confirm your total pay for the year
- Apply through your Student Loans Company account or by phone
- Remember the refund is added back to your balance and carries on accruing interest
Rates, assumptions and sources
Every figure below is the 2026-27 published figure, read from this site's single source of truth at page-render time[source]. The 6% Plan 2 and Postgraduate interest cap covers the 2026/27 year only and is not assumed to continue[source].
| Plan | Threshold | Rate | Interest | Written off | Threshold freeze |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plan 2 | £29,385[source] | 9% | 4.1% to 7.1% by income, capped at 6% for 2026-27[source] | 30 years[source] | Frozen at £29,385 until April 2030 |
Write-off is counted from the April after the course ends, not from the course-end date itself, and the Plan 2 interest bands (£29,385 lower, £52,885 upper) are frozen alongside the Plan 2 repayment threshold.
This calculator also assumes
- Tax year modelled
- 2026-27
- Leave type
- Maternity leave
- Statutory flat rate
- £194.32 a week
- Statutory pay structure
- 90% of average weekly earnings for 6 weeks, then the lower of that and the flat rate to week 39
- Monthly threshold applied
- £2,448 (HMRC published figure, not £29,385 ÷ 12)
- Salary growth
- None — one tax year is modelled
- Write-off April
- 2051, from a 2020 course end
Growth, inflation and long-run interest figures are assumptions, not published rates. Change them and the projection changes.
Related Calculators
Understanding Student Loans During Parental Leave
Taking parental leave has significant implications for student loan repayments in the UK. While repayments pause or reduce when income drops, interest continues to accrue, disproportionately affecting women who take the majority of parental leave.
Need more information about parental rights?
Check GOV.UK for official guidance on maternity, paternity, and shared parental leave entitlements, pay rates, and how to claim refunds on student loan overpayments.