Your plan was decided by where you applied and when you started
You're thirtyish and your payslip says "student loan" and nothing else.
You didn't choose your plan and you can't change it
Two facts decide it: which country's student finance body you applied to, and the year your course started.
Not what you studied, not where you studied, not what you earn. If you have more than one loan you can be on two plans at once, and they behave differently from each other.
Eight rows cover almost every student loan in the UK
Find your row. That's your plan.
| You applied to | Course started | You're on |
|---|---|---|
| Student Finance England | Before Sept 2012 | Plan 1 |
| Student Finance England | Sept 2012 – July 2023 | Plan 2 |
| Student Finance England | Aug 2023 onwards | Plan 5 |
| Student Finance Wales | Before Sept 2012 | Plan 1 |
| Student Finance Wales | Sept 2012 onwards | Plan 2 |
| Student Awards Agency Scotland | Any year | Plan 4 |
| Student Finance NI | Any year | Plan 1 |
| A master's or doctorate (England or Wales) | Master's from 2016, doctorate from 2018 | Postgraduate |
The awkward cases — PGCEs, Advanced Learner Loans, short courses
A PGCE is postgraduate by name and undergraduate by plan: it goes on Plan 2 or Plan 5 with everything else, depending on the year.
An Advanced Learner Loan follows the same dates as an undergraduate course — Plan 2 up to July 2023, Plan 5 after.
A Higher Education Short Course Loan is Plan 2 whenever you took it, including after August 2023 when everything else moved to Plan 5.
Only a master's or doctorate gets the Postgraduate plan — and only from England or Wales.
Scotland and Northern Ireland ignore the English rules completely
One plan each, for undergraduates and postgraduates alike.
Apply through Scotland and you're on Plan 4, whatever and whenever you studied. Apply through Northern Ireland and you're on Plan 1, on the same basis. No 2012 cliff, no 2023 cliff, no separate postgraduate plan — the master's goes on the same plan as the degree.
It's the tidiest part of the whole system and almost nobody knows it.
The postgraduate loan is called Plan 3, and almost nothing calls it that
Same loan, three names, depending on who's writing.
The Department for Education calls it Plan 3. GOV.UK's own repayment guide, aimed at you rather than at officials, calls it a Postgraduate Loan and never once says Plan 3. Your payslip will most likely show PGL.
So if you've been trying to work out whether you have a "Plan 3" and can't find it anywhere: you're not missing anything. It's the postgraduate one.
You can be paying two of these at the same time
And they stack, rather than one replacing the other.
An undergraduate loan takes 9% of everything above its threshold. A postgraduate loan takes another 6% above £21,000, separately and at the same time. Someone on Plan 2 and Postgraduate together is losing up to 15% of the income above both lines.
Two loans, two thresholds, two interest rates, two write-off dates. They are not one debt with one balance, however your statement makes it look.
If your employer has you on the wrong plan, you can get it back
This happens, and it is fixable.
Sign in to your repayment account and download the active plan type letter — that's SLC telling you what you're actually on. Then ask your employer which plan they have you on. If the two don't match, show them the letter so payroll can be corrected, and claim a refund if you've overpaid because of it.
Worth checking if you started a job recently. The plan comes from a form you filled in on your first day, and it is easy to tick the wrong box about a loan you took out eight years ago.
Getting this wrong makes every other number wrong
The thresholds run from £21,000 to £33,795, and the terms from 25 years to 40.
The plan decides what you pay, what interest you're charged, and when the whole thing ends. Every other page here depends on getting it right, and so does the calculator.
If you're still not sure, your online account will tell you outright.
I can't tell you what to do about your own loan. This is information rather than advice.
2026/27 tax year, from GOV.UK. Thresholds change every April. Full workings.