When is a student loan written off?

01

The short answer

A UK student loan is cancelled after a fixed period whether or not anything is left to repay. On the standard cohorts, that is 25 years for Plan 1, 30 years for Plan 2, 30 years for Plan 4, 40 years for Plan 5 and 30 years for the England and Wales Postgraduate Loan, counted from the April you were first due to repay.

The exceptions are the oldest cohorts. Plan 1 borrowers whose first loan payment arrived before 1 September 2006 are written off at age 65 instead, and Plan 4 borrowers first paid before 1 August 2007 are written off at age 65 or after 30 years, whichever comes first.

Not sure which plan you have? Start with our which-plan guide.

02

Write-off rules by plan and cohort

This table is generated from the same verified rule set the calculator uses, last checked against GOV.UK on 27 August 2026.

GOV.UK states each anniversary as “after the April you were first due to repay” without fixing an exact calendar day. Where this site needs a date, it uses 5 April of the anniversary year and says so.

Scotland and Northern Ireland postgraduates do not have the separate Postgraduate Loan product: Scottish postgraduate borrowing repays on Plan 4 and Northern Ireland postgraduate borrowing on Plan 1, so the rows above for those plans apply.

03

The April that starts the clock

Every fixed-year rule counts from the April you were first due to repay, not from graduation day and not from when you took the loan out. You become due to repay from the April after you finish or leave your course (for part-time courses, the April after leaving or the April four years after starting, whichever comes first).

Plan 5 has one extra rule: nobody on Plan 5 was due to repay before April 2026. Forty years on from that earliest possible start, the first Plan 5 write-offs cannot arrive before 2066, a derived figure (April 2026 plus 40 years), not an official date.

04

At what age is a student loan written off?

For almost everyone, there is no age rule at all. Only two cohorts have one: Plan 1 borrowers whose first loan payment arrived before 1 September 2006 are written off at age 65, and Plan 4 borrowers first paid before 1 August 2007 at age 65 or after 30 years, whichever comes first. Every other borrower is on a fixed-year term, so the age you reach write-off is simply the age you were first due to repay plus that term.

Taking 22 as an illustrative age to become due to repay, an assumption rather than an official figure, the terms work out as:

Shift your own first-due April earlier or later and every age shifts with it. There is also no age at which repayments stop by themselves: deductions continue for as long as you earn above your plan's threshold, until the balance is cleared or the term ends. Nothing in the rules above cancels a loan at retirement, only the fixed term or, for those two old cohorts, age 65.

05

What actually happens at write-off

The remaining balance is cancelled and repayments stop. Write-off at the end of the loan term is part of the loan terms themselves, it is not a concession you apply for, and there is no charge or penalty attached to it.

Loans can also be cancelled earlier in two circumstances. If a borrower dies, the Student Loans Company cancels the loan once it is notified and given evidence such as an original death certificate. If you can no longer work because of illness or disability, SLC may cancel the loan if you claim certain disability benefits and can provide evidence.

Separately, full-time students from Wales may have up to £1,500 of one Maintenance Loan written off by Student Finance Wales, a partial cancellation scheme, distinct from the end-of-term write-off above.

06

Why this date changes every other decision

Whether you will reach write-off with a balance remaining is the single most important fact about your loan. GOV.UK's own guidance on extra repayments makes the point directly: “You might not benefit from making extra repayments because your loan will be written off at the end of the loan term.”

If you are on course to be written off, voluntary payments reduce a balance that was going to be cancelled anyway, and they can never be refunded. If you are on course to repay in full, clearing the loan sooner genuinely reduces the interest you pay. Our overpayment guide works through that decision, and the calculator projects your own likely outcome, repaid or written off, and when.

07

How the calculator models write-off

The live calculator estimates your first-due April from the graduation year you enter, then applies the standard fixed-year rule for your plan: 25 years for Plan 1, 30 for Plan 2, 30 for Plan 4, 40 for Plan 5 and 30 for the Postgraduate Loan.

It does not yet model the age-65 rules for the oldest Plan 1 and Plan 4 cohorts, which would need your date of birth and first-payment timing. If your first loan payment was before 1 September 2006 (Plan 1) or 1 August 2007 (Plan 4), treat the calculator's write-off date as inaccurate for you and rely on the official rules above.

Outcomes are illustrative estimates, not personalised financial advice.

08

Official sources

Figures on this page follow the calculator's verified rules, last checked 27 August 2026. Official pages:

• Repaying your student loan: When your student loan gets written off or cancelled
• Repaying your student loan: When you start repaying
• Repaying your student loan: Make extra repayments
• Scottish student loans: a guide to terms and conditions 2026 to 2027

Want to see whether your own balance is heading for repayment or write-off? Model it in the student loan calculator with your salary and remaining balance.