What if you have more than one student loan plan?
You can’t choose your repayment plan, and if you’ve borrowed at different times or for different courses you can end up on more than one. This guide covers what that does to your pay.
Two undergraduate plans, for example Plan 1 and Plan 2
You make a single repayment each time you’re paid, even though it pays down more than one loan. It’s worked out as 9% of your income over the lowest threshold of the plans you hold.
So with Plan 1 (threshold £26,900 a year) and Plan 2 (£29,385), the repayment is calculated from the Plan 1 figure, because it’s lower. That means you start repaying at the lower threshold and repay more than you would on Plan 2 alone.
How it’s split between the loans
There’s a cap on how much of each repayment can go towards the loan with the lowest threshold. The cap depends on the gap between the two thresholds. Anything over the cap goes towards your other loan. In effect the lower-threshold loan receives up to the cap, and the rest of the repayment goes to the other one. In GOV.UK’s example, £18 of an £86 repayment goes to the Plan 1 loan and the remaining £68 to Plan 2.
An undergraduate plan plus a Postgraduate Loan
Here you repay two separate percentages at the same time:
- 6% of your income over the Postgraduate Loan threshold (£21,000 a year), and
- 9% of your income over the lowest threshold of any undergraduate plans you hold.
For example, someone earning £50,000 with Plan 2 and a Postgraduate Loan would repay £1,740 a year towards the Postgraduate Loan and £1,855 a year towards Plan 2, both from the same pay. Real deductions are worked out each pay period, so treat those as an approximation. See Postgraduate Loan repayments explained.
Two jobs
If you’re employed, repayments come only from jobs where your pay is over the threshold for your plan, not from your combined income across jobs. Two jobs each below the threshold can mean no repayments even if the total is above it. If you file a Self Assessment return, HMRC works from your total income for the year instead. See why your deduction can look wrong.
What it means for overpaying
If you make an extra repayment and hold more than one plan, you can choose whether it reduces your total balance or the balance of one specific plan. If you don’t choose, the Student Loans Company decides for you. Which loan to target depends on interest rates and write-off dates, and the calculator models one loan at a time, so run each plan separately. See how to make a student loan overpayment.
Source: GOV.UK, Repaying your student loan: what you pay. Figures shown are those used on this site for 2026–27.