Class of 2026: what graduates will really repay

01

Key findings

Students graduating in summer 2026 are the first full Plan 5 cohort, entering repayment from April 2027. We ran the latest official average balance on entering repayment of £47,730 through our repayment engine at six starting salaries, assuming typical 2.5% annual pay rises. Three things stand out:

• A graduate starting on £30,000 repays £95,020, almost double the £47,730 borrowed, and still has £19,750 written off in 2067.
• Middle earners pay the most. A £30,000 starter repays around £27,000 more over their career than a graduate who starts on £50,000, because higher earners clear the balance decades sooner and stop paying interest.
• Only graduates starting on roughly £35,000 or more ever clear the loan. Below that, repayments continue for the full 40 years and the remainder is written off in April 2067, by which point the class of 2026 will be in their early sixties.

02

What each graduate repays

Repayments are 9% of income above the £25,000 Plan 5 threshold, starting April 2027. The first-year monthly payment is small; the career total is not.

03

Middle earners pay the most

Total career repayments do not rise smoothly with salary. They peak around a £30,000 starting salary and then fall. Graduates on modest salaries pay 9% above the threshold for the full 40 years without ever out-running the interest, while high earners clear the debt quickly and stop.

04

Why the system works this way

Plan 5 loans charge interest at RPI (3.2% for the academic year to 31 August 2026, the rate these projections were computed at; 4.1% from 1 September 2026) from the day the first payment is made. A graduate starting on £30,000 pays £38 a month in year one, while monthly interest on a £47,730 balance is around £127, so the balance grows for years even though they are paying. Repayments only accelerate as pay rises, and the 40-year term means most of a working life is spent paying before the April 2067 write-off.

Whether an individual should do anything about this depends entirely on their circumstances. Our calculator shows the projection for any salary and balance, and our Plan 5 guide explains the rules in full.

05

Assumptions and methodology

All figures were produced in July 2026 by this site's repayment engine, the same tested code that runs the calculator. Assumptions: Plan 5 loan of £47,730 (the average balance for borrowers entering repayment in 2025/26, per the Student Loans Company); repayment from April 2027; 2026/27 threshold of £25,000 and 9% rate; interest at RPI 3.2%, held constant. That was the academic-year rate when these were produced, and RPI rose to 4.1% for the academic year from 1 September 2026, so the real outcomes will be somewhat worse than shown. Also assumed: salaries growing 2.5% a year; write-off 40 years after repayment starts, in April 2067. Sources for every rule are on our sources page and the approach is described in our methodology.

These are projections under fixed assumptions, not predictions. Future thresholds, RPI and individual earnings will differ; with flat salaries (no pay rises) the same £30,000 earner would repay £18,000 rather than £95,020, with far more written off. This page is for illustrative purposes only and is not financial advice.

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