Answers · UK 2025/26

What happens to my student loan repayments if I reduce my hours or go part-time?

Student loan repayments are based purely on your actual income in each pay period, so reducing your hours or going part-time automatically lowers or stops your repayments if your reduced pay falls near or below your plan's threshold. There is no separate application needed -- your employer's payroll system recalculates the deduction each pay period based on that period's earnings.

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

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Unlike many other financial commitments, UK student loan repayments through PAYE are calculated afresh each pay period based purely on the income received in that period -- there is no fixed annual commitment or minimum payment that continues regardless of your earnings. If you reduce your hours and your pay drops, your employer's payroll software automatically recalculates your student loan deduction for that pay period using the relevant threshold for your plan type (for example, £25,000 for Plan 5 or £29,385 for Plan 2 in 2026/27), converted to a monthly or weekly equivalent. If your reduced monthly pay falls below the monthly threshold, no repayment is deducted for that month at all, even if you were repaying a substantial amount before the change. Because the calculation is non-cumulative and based only on each individual pay period rather than your income across the whole tax year, someone who works full pay for six months and then drops to part-time for six months will pay less in total student loan repayments than someone who earns the same annual total but spread evenly across all twelve months and consistently above the monthly threshold -- an important difference from Income Tax, which is generally calculated cumulatively across the tax year. If you become self-employed as well as, or instead of, employed, any self-employment income is captured separately through Self Assessment, based on your total profit for the tax year rather than a period-by-period calculation.