On £80,000 a year you repay £398 a month towards a Plan 1 loan — £4,779 over a year, or 6.0% of your gross salary.
| Gross salary | £80,000 |
| Plan 1 threshold | £26,900 |
| Income above the threshold | £53,100 |
| Repayment rate | 9% |
| Monthly repayment | £398.25 |
| Weekly repayment | £91.90 |
| Annual repayment | £4,779 |
| Share of gross pay | 6.0% |
This is the student loan deduction on its own. Income tax and National Insurance come out of the same payslip and are calculated separately, so your take-home pay will be lower than salary minus this figure.
Student loan deduction only. Income tax and National Insurance are separate.
Which plan you are on is decided by where and when you studied, not by choice — but it changes the monthly figure a lot.
| Plan | Threshold | Monthly on £80,000 |
|---|---|---|
| Plan 1 | £26,900 | £398 |
| Plan 2 | £29,385 | £380 |
| Plan 4 | £33,795 | £347 |
| Plan 5 | £25,000 | £412 |
| Postgraduate Loan | £21,000 | £295 |
Probably less than you think. If you stayed on £80,000 in real terms for the whole 25 years, you would repay about £119,475 in total and then have whatever is left written off. Interest changes the balance on your statement, but it only changes what you actually pay if you were on course to clear the loan in full before the write-off date.
That total is a deliberately simple figure: flat real salary, no promotions, no career breaks, no early repayment. It is there to show the shape of the thing, not to predict your life. Most graduates repay for the full term and never clear the balance, which makes this behave like a 25-year graduate tax rather than a debt.
You started an English or Welsh undergraduate course before September 2012 (or a Northern Irish course at any time).
Interest: currently 4.1%. RPI, or Bank Base Rate plus 1%, whichever is lower. Write-off: 25 years after repayments were due to start.
£398 a month, which is £4,779 over a year. It is 9% of the £53,100 you earn above the £26,900 threshold.
No. Repayments depend only on your income, never on how much you borrowed. The balance affects how long you keep paying, not what leaves your payslip.
A Plan 1 loan is written off 25 years after you became due to repay, and any remaining balance is cancelled. It is not passed on and it does not affect your estate.
It is taken from your gross pay through PAYE, alongside income tax and National Insurance, but it is calculated separately from them.
Figures checked 18 August 2026 against GOV.UK and Save the Student. This is information, not financial advice, and your own payslip is the authority on what you actually pay.