Answers · UK 2025/26

How much is my Plan 5 student loan repayment on a £30,000 salary?

On a £30,000 salary in 2026/27, a Plan 5 student loan repayment is £450 for the year (9% of the £5,000 above the £25,000 threshold), leaving take-home pay of £24,669.60 a year after Income Tax, National Insurance and the loan repayment -- about £2,055.80 a month.

Last updated: 3 July 2026Last reviewed: 3 July 2026How we verify

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Plan 5 student loans, used by most English undergraduates who started their course from August 2023 onwards, are repaid at 9% of income above a threshold that is frozen at £25,000 for 2026/27 -- notably lower than the £29,385 Plan 2 threshold that applied to earlier cohorts. On a £30,000 salary, the amount above the Plan 5 threshold is £5,000, so the annual repayment is 9% of £5,000, which is £450, or £37.50 a month, deducted automatically through PAYE alongside Income Tax and National Insurance. The underlying Income Tax on £30,000 is £3,486 (20% of the £17,430 taxable after the £12,570 Personal Allowance) and National Insurance is £1,394.40 (8% of the same £17,430), so total deductions are £5,330.40, leaving take-home pay of £24,669.60 a year, around £2,055.80 a month. Because the Plan 5 threshold is frozen rather than rising with inflation or average earnings each year, more of your future pay rises will fall above the threshold over time, gradually increasing the proportion of your salary that goes toward loan repayments even without your salary growing in real terms -- a key structural difference from Plan 2, whose threshold has historically been uprated more often.