Student loan calculator — a tax in all but name

9% of everything above your plan's threshold (6% postgrad), through payroll, until it clears or writes off — which is why the balance matters less than people think and the threshold matters more. The same plan table and function the Hundred Summers engine deducts in every projected working year. Your figures never leave your browser.

Why the balance is the wrong number to stare at

Repayments are set by earnings, not by what you owe: earn £38,000 on Plan 2 and you repay £775 a year whether the balance is £20,000 or £80,000. For many graduates the balance never clears — it's written off after 25–40 years — making the loan a 9% graduate tax with a sunset clause. The write-off is why overpaying is often a mistake: money sent at a balance that would have been written off anyway is simply gone.

The exception is high earners on course to clear the loan early — for them interest genuinely accrues and early repayment genuinely saves. The full Hundred Summers plan deducts your plan's repayments from take-home in every projected working year and shows when (or whether) your balance clears.