Answers · UK 2025/26

What is my take-home pay on £52,000 with both a Plan 2 and a Postgraduate Loan in 2026/27?

On £52,000 in 2026/27 with both a Plan 2 undergraduate loan and a Postgraduate Loan, you pay £8,232 Income Tax, £3,050.60 National Insurance, £2,035.35 Plan 2 repayments and £1,860 Postgraduate Loan repayments, leaving £36,822.05 take-home pay -- about £3,068.50 a month.

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

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Graduates who completed a Master's degree after an undergraduate course funded by a Plan 2 loan often end up repaying both loan types at once, and the two are calculated completely independently rather than being combined into a single repayment. On a £52,000 salary in 2026/27, taxable income of £39,430 spans the basic and higher rate bands, giving £8,232 Income Tax (£37,700 at 20% plus £1,730 at 40%), and National Insurance comes to £3,050.60 (8% up to the £50,270 Upper Earnings Limit, plus 2% on the remaining £1,730). Before student loans, that leaves £40,717.40. The Plan 2 loan is repaid at 9% of income above £29,385, so on £52,000 the amount above the threshold is £22,615, giving a repayment of £2,035.35. The Postgraduate Loan is repaid separately at 6% of income above £21,000, so the amount above that threshold is £31,000, giving a repayment of £1,860. The two repayments total £3,895.35 for the year, leaving take-home pay of £36,822.05, around £3,068.50 a month. At this salary, the combined marginal deduction on income above £29,385 (where both thresholds are exceeded) reaches 20% Income Tax, plus 8% National Insurance, plus 9% Plan 2, plus 6% Postgraduate, a total of 43% -- meaningfully higher than a graduate repaying only one loan type. There is no cap on combining loan repayments, so both continue until each individual loan is repaid in full or written off according to its own term.