Plan 5 applies to courses started on or after 1 August 2023

Students who started undergraduate courses through Student Finance England on or after 1 August 2023 are on repayment Plan 5, according to guidance on student finance published by Prospects.ac.uk¹. The same date marks the boundary for the plan: "you'll be on Plan 5 if you started your course on or after 1 August 2023"¹.

Under Plan 5, repayments begin in the April after graduation and only once earnings pass the threshold. National Debtline sets the Plan 5 repayment threshold at £25,000 a year, £2,083 a month or £480 a week, with repayments of 9% of the difference between actual income and that threshold². Its worked example: someone earning £31,575 a year is £6,575 above the threshold, and 9% of that is £591.75 a year². Any balance still owed 40 years after repayments were due is written off, and a loan may also be written off if the borrower can prove they are permanently unfit to work².

The thresholds differ by plan. For students who started in Wales on or after 1 September 2012, or in England between 1 September 2012 and 31 July 2023, the threshold is £29,385 a year, £2,449 a month or £565 a week, with a 30-year write-off². For those who started between 1 September 1998 and 1 September 2012, the threshold is £26,900 a year, £2,242 a month or £517 a week².

Repayments are usually collected by HM Revenue & Customs through an employer, or through self-assessment tax returns for the self-employed; borrowers outside the England and Wales tax system repay the Student Loans Company directly². Student loans are not recorded on credit reports, so they do not directly affect a credit score, though lenders may consider repayments when assessing a mortgage or large loan application¹.

Tuition fee loans of up to £9,790 a year cover course fees for 2026/27 and are paid directly to the university, and part-time students may be eligible for up to £7,335¹. Maintenance loans for 2026/27 run to £9,118 for students living at home, £10,830 living away from home outside London, £14,135 living away from home in London, £12,403 for a course with a year abroad and £4,582 for those aged 60 or over on the first day of the first academic year¹. These are means-tested¹.

Why it matters for households

Plan 5 applies to borrowers who started their course on or after 1 August 2023, so it covers current undergraduates and anyone who began in the 2023/24 academic year or later¹. Their repayments start in the April after graduation, and only on income above £25,000 a year². Because the threshold is lower than the £29,385 applying to the previous English plan, a Plan 5 borrower on the same salary pays more each month than someone on Plan 2: at £31,575 a year, the difference is £591.75 a year against £197 a year². The write-off period is also longer, at 40 years rather than 30².

For families, the practical points are the timing of the first deduction, the level of the threshold and the fact that repayments are collected through payroll rather than billed separately². The tuition fee cap for 2026/27 entry is £9,790 in England and Wales, up 3.1% from £9,535 in 2025/26 after seven years at £9,250¹. In Northern Ireland, universities charge a maximum of £4,985 a year to Northern Irish students and up to £9,790 to English, Scottish and Welsh students¹. Scottish students can apply for home fees of £1,820 for 2026/27 to be paid in full by the Student Awards Agency for Scotland¹.

What happens next

Applications for full-time undergraduate courses in England usually open in March, and the guidance suggests applying by 31 May for courses starting between 1 August and 31 December, as processing can take up to six weeks; the final deadline is nine months after the start of the academic year¹. For borrowers already repaying, National Debtline notes that under the rules in place from 1 September 2025 to 31 August 2026, a gross income of £3,467.75 a month or less, equivalent to £41,613 a year, may make someone eligible to apply for deferment of an old-style fixed-term loan².