UK Student Loan Thresholds by Tax Year, 2000-2027
A historical lookup. Pick a plan and a tax year to see the threshold that applied and the interest rate set that September, from 2000/01 through to 2026/27. Use it to check past deductions, work out whether you are owed a refund for a year you earned below the line, or see how a freeze changed what you paid.
Want this year's figure and what it means for your payslip? Start with the student loan repayment threshold guide, which covers every plan for 2026/27. For the rules behind each rate, see our student loan interest rates guide.
Scottish borrowers only got their own figure on 6 April 2021; before that they used the Plan 1 line. The current Plan 4 student loan threshold and its rules are on the Plan 4 page.
Shows the annual repayment that salary would have produced against each year's threshold, at the plan's repayment rate.
Threshold history by tax year
Annual threshold, change on the previous year, and the repayment £35,000 would have produced. "Frozen" marks a year the figure did not move. Every figure from 2026/27 back to 2024/25 is read from this site's single source of truth[source]; earlier years come from the GOV.UK archive of previous thresholds[source].
How this is worked out
(£35,000 − £29,385) × 9% = £505
Every "Repayment" figure in the table is this sum with that row's threshold substituted in. Shown here for Plan 2, 2026/27. Below the threshold the difference is treated as zero, not negative.
| Tax year | Plan 2 |
|---|---|
| 2026/27 | £29,385 +3.2% Repayment: £505 |
| 2025/26 | £28,470 +4.3% Repayment: £588 |
| 2024/25 | £27,295 Frozen Repayment: £693 |
| 2023/24 | £27,295 Frozen Repayment: £693 |
| 2022/23 | £27,295 Frozen Repayment: £693 |
| 2021/22 | £27,295 +2.7% Repayment: £693 |
| 2020/21 | £26,575 +3.3% Repayment: £758 |
| 2019/20 | £25,725 +2.9% Repayment: £835 |
| 2018/19 | £25,000 +19.0% Repayment: £900 |
| 2017/18 | £21,000 Frozen Repayment: £1,260 |
| 2016/17 | £21,000 Repayment: £1,260 |
| 2015/16 | n/a |
| 2014/15 | n/a |
| 2013/14 | n/a |
| 2012/13 | n/a |
| 2011/12 | n/a |
| 2010/11 | n/a |
| 2009/10 | n/a |
| 2008/09 | n/a |
| 2007/08 | n/a |
| 2006/07 | n/a |
| 2005/06 | n/a |
| 2004/05 | n/a |
| 2003/04 | n/a |
| 2002/03 | n/a |
| 2001/02 | n/a |
| 2000/01 | n/a |
Interest rate history
The rate that came into force on 1 September within each tax year, from 2019/20 to 2026/27. Rates are set from the previous March's RPI, and a market-rate cap has sometimes moved them again mid-year; the notes say where. This is the same table the interest rate change impact calculator uses — one table, one set of figures[source].
| Tax year | Rate period | Plan 2 | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026/27(current) | Sept 2026 to Aug 2027 | 4.1% to 6% (capped) | From 1 September 2026, with RPI at 4.1%. Plan 2 and Postgraduate Loan interest is capped at 6% for the 2026/27 academic year only; without the cap the top rate would be 7.1%.[source] |
| 2025/26 | Sept 2025 to Aug 2026 | 3.2% to 6.2% | From 1 September 2025 to 31 August 2026, with RPI at 3.2%. No rate moved during the period. Earlier in this tax year, from April to August 2025, the rates set on 1 September 2024 still applied: 4.3% on Plan 1, Plan 4 and Plan 5, 4.3% to 7.3% on Plan 2 and 7.3% on the Postgraduate Loan.[source] |
| 2024/25 | Sept 2024 to Aug 2025 | 4.3% to 7.3% | From 1 September 2024 to 31 August 2025, with RPI at 4.3%. No rate moved during the period, and the market-rate cap did not apply. Earlier in this tax year, from April to August 2024, the previous period's rates were still in force: Plan 1 and Plan 4 were 6.25% (Bank of England base rate 5.25% plus 1%) until 29 August 2024 and 6% on 30 and 31 August; the market-rate cap held Plan 2 (at every income), Plan 5 and Postgraduate Loans at 7.8% from 1 April, 7.9% from 1 June and 8% from 1 August 2024.[source] |
| 2023/24 | Sept 2023 to Aug 2024 | 7.3% (capped, all incomes) | From 1 September 2023 to 31 August 2024. RPI was above the market-rate cap, so every Plan 2, Plan 5 and Postgraduate borrower paid the same capped rate whatever their income: 7.3% from 1 September 2023, 7.5% from 1 December 2023, 7.6% from 1 January 2024, 7.7% from 1 March, 7.8% from 1 April, 7.9% from 1 June and 8% from 1 August 2024. Plan 1 and Plan 4 were 6.25% until 29 August 2024, then 6% on 30 and 31 August. Earlier in this tax year, from April to August 2023, Plan 1 and Plan 4 rose with the base rate (5% until 20 April, 5.25% from 21 April, 5.5% from 9 June and 6% from 21 July 2023); the cap held Plan 2 and Postgraduate Loans at 6.9% until 31 May and 7.1% from 1 June 2023; and Plan 5 loans began on 1 August 2023 at that 7.1% cap.[source] |
| 2022/23 | Sept 2022 to Aug 2023 | 6.3% (capped, all incomes) | From 1 September 2022 to 31 August 2023. Plan 1 and Plan 4 rose with the Bank of England base rate: 2.75% from 1 September, 3.25% from 20 October and 4% from 2 December 2022, 4.5% from 12 January and 5% from 3 March 2023, then 5.25% from 21 April, 5.5% from 9 June and 6% from 21 July 2023. RPI was above the market-rate cap, so every Plan 2 and Postgraduate borrower paid the same capped rate whatever their income: 6.3% from 1 September 2022, 6.5% from 1 December 2022, 6.9% from 1 March 2023 and 7.1% from 1 June 2023. Plan 5 loans began on 1 August 2023, in the last month of this period, at that 7.1% cap; there was no Plan 5 at the 1 September 2022 reset or at any point in the 2022/23 tax year. Earlier in this tax year, from April to August 2022, Plan 1 and Plan 4 were 1.5%, Plan 2 1.5% to 4.5% and the Postgraduate Loan 4.5%.[source] |
| 2021/22 | Sept 2021 to Aug 2022 | 1.5% to 4.2% (capped) | From 1 September 2021 to 31 August 2022, with RPI at 1.5%. Plan 1 and Plan 4 rose with the base rate to 1.25% on 13 January 2022 and 1.5% on 3 March 2022. The market-rate cap held the Plan 2 top rate and the Postgraduate Loan at 4.2% in September 2021, 4.1% from 1 October 2021 and 4.4% from 1 January 2022; from 1 March 2022 the cap no longer bit and the full RPI plus 3% (4.5%) applied. Earlier in this tax year, Plan 4 was created on 6 April 2021, charging 1.1% like Plan 1, and from 1 July to 31 August 2021 the cap cut the Plan 2 top rate and the Postgraduate Loan from 5.6% to 5.3% (the Plan 2 lower rate stayed at 2.6%).[source] |
| 2020/21 | Sept 2020 to Aug 2021 | 2.6% to 5.6% | From 1 September 2020 to 31 August 2021, with RPI at 2.6%. Plan 1 stayed at 1.1% throughout. From 1 July 2021 the market-rate cap cut the Plan 2 top rate and the Postgraduate Loan from 5.6% to 5.3% for the last two months of the period; the Plan 2 lower rate stayed at 2.6%. Plan 4 did not exist until 6 April 2021, the first day of the 2021/22 tax year; Scottish borrowers were on Plan 1 terms until then, and Plan 4 charged 1.1%, like Plan 1, from that date to 31 August 2021. Earlier in this tax year, Plan 1 fell from 1.75% to 1.1% on 7 April 2020, and Plan 2 was 2.4% to 5.4% and the Postgraduate Loan 5.4% until 31 August 2020.[source] |
| 2019/20 | Sept 2019 to Aug 2020 | 2.4% to 5.4% | From 1 September 2019 to 31 August 2020, with RPI at 2.4%. Plan 1 was 1.75% until 6 April 2020 and 1.1% from 7 April 2020 to the end of the period (SLC's Plan 4 page, which repeats the Plan 1 history, dates the cut 6 April). Plan 2 and Postgraduate rates did not move. Earlier in this tax year, from April to August 2019, Plan 1 was already 1.75%, Plan 2 was 3.3% to 6.3% and the Postgraduate Loan 6.3%.[source] |
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
- Historic thresholds
- GOV.UK published figures, 2000/01 onwards
- Historic interest rates
- SLC published figures, 2019/20 onwards
- Repayment shown
- Annual, salary earned evenly across the tax year
Growth, inflation and long-run interest figures are assumptions, not published rates. Change them and the projection changes.
Figures are for 2026/27 unless the row says otherwise.
What the history shows
The Plan 2 freeze
Plan 2 was held at £27,295 for four tax years, 2021/22 to 2024/25, while Plan 1 rose every April. It rose again in 2025 and 2026, and is due to be frozen at £29,385 from April 2027 to April 2030.
Plan 1 has never been frozen since 2012
After sitting at £10,000 and then £15,000 for its first twelve years, the Plan 1 threshold has moved every April since 2012/13, from £15,795 to £26,900.
Plan 4 started high
Scotland's plan launched in April 2021 at £25,000, more than £5,000 above Plan 1 at the time, and has had the highest threshold of any plan every year since 2023/24.
Two thresholds that never move
The Postgraduate Loan threshold has been £21,000 since repayments began in April 2019. Plan 5 is fixed at £25,000 until April 2027, after which it is uprated annually.
Interest swung from 1.1% to 8%
Plan 1 interest was 1.1% through 2020 and 2021. By 2023/24 the market-rate cap was the only thing holding Plan 2 below 8%, and every Plan 2 borrower paid the same flat rate regardless of income.
Why the old figure matters
Refund claims are judged against the threshold for the tax year in question, not today's. If deductions were taken in a year your total income was below that year's line, you can reclaim them from the Student Loans Company.
Frequently asked questions
What was the student loan threshold in 2025/26?
In the 2025/26 tax year (6 April 2025 to 5 April 2026) the thresholds were £26,065 on Plan 1, £28,470 on Plan 2, £32,745 on Plan 4, £25,000 on Plan 5 and £21,000 on the Postgraduate Loan. From 6 April 2026 they moved to £26,900, £29,385, £33,795, £25,000 and £21,000 respectively.
Why was the Plan 2 threshold frozen from 2021 to 2025, and is it being frozen again?
The Plan 2 threshold was held at £27,295 for four tax years, 2021/22 to 2024/25, a government decision that raised repayments and cut the taxpayer subsidy while inflation ran high. It rose to £28,470 in April 2025 and £29,385 in April 2026. A second freeze was announced at the Autumn Budget 2025: Rose to £29,385 in April 2026, then frozen at £29,385 from April 2027 to April 2030 (Autumn Budget 2025). The Plan 2 interest bands (£29,385 lower, £52,885 upper) are frozen alongside it.
How have Plan 1 thresholds changed over time?
Plan 1 started at £10,000 in April 2000 and stayed there until 2004/05, then moved to £15,000 from 2005/06 to 2011/12. Annual uprating began in 2012/13 at £15,795, reaching £17,495 in 2016/17, £19,895 in 2021/22, £24,990 in 2024/25, £26,065 in 2025/26 and £26,900 in 2026/27. The threshold now rises each April in line with RPI.
What was the initial Plan 2 threshold when it launched?
Plan 2 loans were taken out from September 2012, but repayments only began on 6 April 2016, at a threshold of £21,000 for 2016/17 and 2017/18. It jumped to £25,000 in April 2018, then £25,725 (2019/20) and £26,575 (2020/21), before the freeze at £27,295 from 2021/22. The original £21,000 was well above the Plan 1 figure of £17,495 at the time.
When did Plan 4 get its own threshold?
On 6 April 2021, at £25,000. Before then Scottish borrowers were assessed against the Plan 1 threshold. Plan 4 has risen every April since: £25,375 (2022/23), £27,660 (2023/24), £31,395 (2024/25), £32,745 (2025/26) and £33,795 (2026/27).
How do I find the threshold for a specific past tax year?
Pick your plan and the tax year (6 April to 5 April) in the lookup above. For example, the Plan 2 threshold for 2020/21 was £26,575. GOV.UK publishes the same figures in its "Previous annual repayment thresholds" guidance. You need the historical figure to check whether past deductions were correct, or whether you are owed a refund for a year your total income was below that year's line.
Sources and method
Thresholds: 2024/25 onwards from HMRC's "Rates and thresholds for employers" guidance for each year; 2000/01 to 2023/24 from the Student Loans Company's "Previous annual repayment thresholds" page on GOV.UK. Monthly and weekly figures are the annual threshold divided by 12 or 52 and rounded down to the pound, which is how HMRC publishes them.
Interest rates: the per-plan "How interest is calculated" pages published by the Student Loans Company on GOV.UK. The table shows the rate in force from 1 September of each tax year; the notes record mid-year changes caused by the Prevailing Market Rate cap.
Repayment figures: assume the test salary was earned evenly across the tax year and compare it with the annual threshold. Real PAYE deductions are worked out per pay period, so a bonus month or a change of job can produce a different total.
Related student loan calculators
The thresholds by tax year lookup answers one specific question. For the full picture, start with our UK student loan calculator on the homepage, work out what leaves your payslip each month with the monthly repayment calculator, or check what you can borrow with the student finance calculator. Every tool on the site is listed in the UK student loan calculator directory.
- student loan repayment threshold guide: this year's threshold for every plan and what it means for your payslip
- student loan interest calculator: how much interest is added to your balance each year
- SLC interest rate impact calculator: what a change in the published rate does to your balance
- inflation impact calculator: what RPI does to your balance in real terms