Plan 1, 2, 4, 5 and Postgrad student loan repayments.
Your details
Annual repayment
£588
Monthly repayment
£48.97
You repay 9% of income above £28,470.
| Salary | £35,000 |
| Threshold | £28,470 |
| Subject to repayment | £6,530 |
| Annual repayment | £588 |
Interactive scenarios
Tax and deductions, your way
Tax year
Region
Pay schedule
Salary £45,000
Net (monthly)
£2,806
Income tax (monthly)
£541
NI (monthly)
£216
Effective rate
20.2%
The full guide
Worked examples with real figures, the order payroll applies them in, and the traps that catch people out.
Repayments start once income passes the plan threshold and take a flat percentage of everything above it. Nothing about the balance changes what comes out this month.
It never reduces taxable pay either, so it sits on top of income tax and National Insurance rather than beside them.
Plan 1 covers older English and Welsh borrowing. Plan 2 covers English loans from the early twenty tens. Plan 4 is Scotland and Plan 5 is the newer English plan, with a longer write off period.
Each plan has its own threshold, and postgraduate borrowing runs alongside any of them at a separate rate. Two deductions in the same month is normal for anyone who did a masters.
Interest builds in the background and never appears on a payslip, which is why the deduction feels unconnected to the balance. For most borrowers it is.
Deductions are not a flat set that each take a bite of the same cake. They run in sequence, and the sequence decides the cost of every one after the first.
Pension goes first under salary sacrifice, leaving gross pay before tax and National Insurance ever see it. Under relief at source it leaves net pay instead and HMRC tops the pot up. Same percentage on paper, different payslip.
Income tax then applies band by band against the tax code. National Insurance follows, worked out per pay period rather than across the year. Student loan sits on top of all of it and never reduces taxable pay.
Change the order and the answer changes. That is why a payslip with the same gross as a colleague's can pay a different net.
Pay flow
Gross, pension, tax, National Insurance, net
The threshold takes the first slice out of scope. Nine percent applies to what is left above it, which is roughly £58 a month on a £32,000 salary.
Add postgraduate borrowing and a second deduction of six percent runs alongside it against its own threshold, so two lines appear on the same payslip.
Most balances are written off before they clear, so voluntary overpayments usually make less sense than pension contributions. The exception is a large balance held by a high earner close to paying it off.
Worked payslip
Gross to net, line by line
Sample payslip
Month 06 · 2025/26Gross pay
£2,916.67
Pension (5%)
£145.83
Taxable pay
£2,770.84
Income tax
£373.83
National Insurance
£149.52
Net pay
£2,247.66
A tax code change mid year. HMRC adjusts the code, payroll applies it, and the letter explaining it rarely gets read. Check the code on the payslip against the one you expect.
A taxable benefit such as private medical cover. It shrinks the allowance, so a perk raises the tax bill and take home falls in the month it starts.
A switch to salary sacrifice. Gross drops before anything else, which changes every line beneath it and can affect mortgage affordability too.
A bonus month. Income tax evens out across the year through the cumulative system. National Insurance never does.
Rates, bands and thresholds follow published HMRC and gov.uk figures for the 2025/26 tax year, held in one table that every tool reads. April arrives, the table changes, and the results move together.
Earlier years stay available through the year selector, so a late self assessment runs on the numbers that applied at the time rather than today's.
Some cases still need an accountant. K codes carrying negative allowances, bespoke sacrifice arrangements, the annual allowance taper for very high earners, and anything involving two employments at once.
Student Loan Repayment Calculator answers one question. The salary calculator turns gross into net, the income tax calculator splits the bill by band, the National Insurance calculator shows the step at the upper limit, and the pension calculator prices a percentage change three ways at once.
Every tool reads the same rate table, so two pages never disagree. Run this one, note the figure, then open the next and watch which line moves.
Example gallery
Real inputs, real outputs
Graduate starter
First job, default workplace pension.
Gross / yr
£28,000
Pension
5%
Income tax
£3,086
NI
£1,234
Mid career
Standard tax code, modest pension uplift.
Gross / yr
£45,000
Pension
6%
Income tax
£6,486
NI
£2,594
Higher rate
Crossing the higher rate band.
Gross / yr
£72,000
Pension
8%
Income tax
£16,232
NI
£3,451
Scotland mid
Scottish bands applied.
Gross / yr
£45,000
Pension
5%
Income tax
£6,928
NI
£2,594
About this calculator
Estimate your monthly and annual UK student loan repayments. Repayments are a percentage of income above your plan's threshold, nothing below.
Quick reference
Questions are added here as readers send them in.