Which student loan plan am I on?

01

Find your plan in three questions

02

Three facts decide your plan

Your repayment plan is set by which student finance body funded you, the kind of course or loan and, where the rules split cohorts, when the course started. It is not affected by where you live or work now, and it does not change when you move.

The sections below walk through each nation. If you want the official answer for your own account, sign in to your Student Loans Company online account or check GOV.UK: which repayment plan you're on.

03

Which plan by the year you started

Two dates split the undergraduate plans in England and Wales: 1 September 2012 and 1 August 2023. Scotland and Northern Ireland have no such split. Find the row your course started in, then read across to the body that funded you.

So an English-funded course starting in autumn 2021 is Plan 2, and one starting in autumn 2023 is Plan 5. A Welsh-funded course starting in either year is Plan 2, because Wales has no Plan 5. SAAS funding is Plan 4 and Student Finance Northern Ireland is Plan 1 whichever year you started.

The table covers undergraduate courses and PGCEs, which is what most people are asking about. Two England cases sit outside it: Higher Education Short Course Loans stay on Plan 2 however late the course started, and a master's or doctoral loan from England or Wales is the separate Postgraduate Loan in every year. Both are covered in the sections below.

04

How to check which plan you’re on

The rules on this page tell you which plan you should be on. To see the plan the Student Loans Company has actually recorded, sign in to your student loan repayment account. Alongside your balance, what you have repaid and the interest added so far, the account shows which repayment plan you are on and lets you print proof of it for an employer.

The third step is the one people skip. Your employer, not you, applies the threshold your deductions are worked out from, so a mismatch changes what leaves your pay every month. GOV.UK: which repayment plan you're on gives the same advice: download the letter, then check it against what your employer has you on.

A payslip will not settle it on its own. Some payroll systems label the deduction with a plan number and others show only “Student Loan”, and the amount taken reflects whichever plan your employer was told to use, which is the thing you are trying to confirm.

Your student finance body (SFE, SFW, SAAS or SFNI) decides the plan in the first place, and it does not change if you move nation, change job or start a second course. If you hold both an undergraduate loan and a Postgraduate Loan you should see two plans rather than one, which the more than one loan section below covers.

05

Funded by Student Finance England

For undergraduate courses and PGCEs:

• Course started before 1 September 2012 → Plan 1
• Course started between 1 September 2012 and 31 July 2023 → Plan 2
• Course started on or after 1 August 2023 → Plan 5

Advanced Learner Loans follow the same two dates as undergraduate study: Plan 2 up to 31 July 2023, then Plan 5 on or after 1 August 2023. The product did not exist before 1 September 2012, so the 1 September 2012 Plan 1 cutoff never applies to it.

Higher Education Short Course Loans stay on Plan 2 whenever the course started, including courses starting after 31 July 2023. This is the one England case where a course beginning in the Plan 5 era is not on Plan 5.

A master's or doctoral loan from Student Finance England is not on any of these plans, it is the separate Postgraduate Loan.

06

Funded by Student Finance Wales

For undergraduate courses and PGCEs:

• Course started before 1 September 2012 → Plan 1
• Course started on or after 1 September 2012 → Plan 2, with no end date

Wales has no Plan 5. Welsh-funded undergraduates who started in autumn 2023 or later are on Plan 2, unlike their English counterparts. Welsh master's and doctoral borrowing uses the same Postgraduate Loan product as England.

07

Funded by SAAS or Student Finance NI

Scotland and Northern Ireland do not split cohorts by course start date, and neither uses the England/Wales Postgraduate Loan product.

• SAAS (Scotland): undergraduate and postgraduate borrowing both repay on Plan 4.
• Student Finance Northern Ireland: undergraduate and postgraduate borrowing both repay on Plan 1.

08

If you have more than one loan

An undergraduate plan and an England/Wales Postgraduate Loan repay at the same time: 9% of income above your undergraduate plan's threshold plus 6% of income above the £21,000 Postgraduate Loan threshold.

If you have two undergraduate plans (for example a Plan 1 and a Plan 2 loan), you still repay 9% in total above the lowest of your thresholds, split between the loans. You do not pay 9% twice. The official rules are on GOV.UK: how much you repay.

09

The plans at a glance (2026/27)

Thresholds are the verified 2026/27 figures, checked 27 August 2026. Interest formulas are summarised; see how student loan interest works for rates and caps, and when a student loan is written off for each plan's term.

10

Official sources

Eligibility windows on this page come from the calculator's verified rules, last checked 27 August 2026 against:

• Repaying your student loan: Which repayment plan you’re on
• Repaying your student loan: How much you repay
• Scottish student loans: a guide to terms and conditions 2026 to 2027

Once you know your plan, open the student loan calculator to model your monthly deduction, total cost and likely write-off, or use the guided setup on the calculator if you are still unsure.