Reviewed by Mustafa Bilgic
Founder, WebCalculator
Thresholds and rates taken from HMRC and GOV.UK for the 2026/27 tax year. Estimates only — not personalised advice.
Plan 5 covers English and Welsh students who started undergraduate study on or after 1 August 2023. You repay 9% of earnings over £25,000. Enter your salary to see annual and monthly repayments for 2026/27.
England & Wales · 2026/27
Plan 5 is the newest income-contingent repayment plan. It applies to English and Welsh undergraduates who started their course on or after 1 August 2023. As with the other plans, repayments are a fixed percentage of the income above a threshold — not a percentage of your whole salary — and they are collected automatically through PAYE or Self Assessment.
For 2026/27 the Plan 5 threshold is £25,000 a year (about £2,083.33 a month). You repay 9% of everything above it. The defining feature of Plan 5 is its longer 40-year write-off: any outstanding balance is cancelled 40 years after the April you were first due to repay, compared with 30 years on Plan 2.
Because the threshold is lower than Plan 2 and the write-off is longer, Plan 5 graduates typically repay more over their lifetime. If you also studied a master's degree, a Postgraduate Loan deduction may stack on top — the student loan repayment calculator combines them.
The rate is the same 9% across Plan 2, Plan 4 and Plan 5 — what differs is the threshold and the write-off period. Plan 5 starts repayments at the lowest income (£25,000) and runs the longest (40 years). Compare with the Plan 2 calculator or the Scottish Plan 4 calculator to see how your plan stacks up.
The 2026/27 Plan 5 threshold is £25,000 a year. You repay 9% of income above it. Plan 5 covers English and Welsh courses started on or after 1 August 2023.
Plan 5 loans are written off 40 years after the April you first became due to repay — 10 years longer than Plan 2.
You earn £10,000 above the threshold, so 9% is £900 a year — about £75 a month through PAYE.