Student Loans on NHS Pay: Payslips, Refunds and the Traps

For the exact amount on your pay point, use the student loan calculator. This guide covers what the calculator can't.

2026/27 thresholds

Your plan follows the body that funded you, not where you work.

Part time? Watch the months with extra shifts

A Band 5 on 80% hours earns £25,658 a year, under the Plan 2 threshold, so in a normal month there's nothing to pay. But in a month with £600 of extra shifts, payroll sees a higher monthly figure and takes £26. If your pay for the whole tax year (6 April to 5 April) ends up below your threshold, you can claim those repayments back once the tax year has ended, through your online repayment account.

Back pay months

Back pay lands in one month, so it can push that month well over the threshold. On the bottom of Band 5 with Plan 2, a usual month's repayment is £20; in a month with £600 of arrears it's £74. That's not an overcharge if your yearly pay is over the threshold, it's just collected all at once. If you're in Northern Ireland waiting for the 2026/27 award, expect this when it's paid.

Check payroll has the right plan

If payroll has you on the wrong plan you'll pay the wrong amount. You can get money back if you're on Plan 2 or Plan 4 but your employer had you on another plan. Download your "active plan type letter" from your online account and compare it with your payslip. If you trained in Scotland and work in England or Wales, you should still be on Plan 4.

Starting work as a newly qualified nurse

You start repaying in the April after you finish your course. A nurse who started a three-year Plan 5 course in September 2023 and qualified in 2026 makes no repayments until April 2027, even though they're earning. Any deductions taken before then can be refunded.

What isn't a loan

If you're on an eligible healthcare degree in England, including nursing, the NHS Learning Support Fund pays a Training Grant of £5,000 each academic year. It isn't means-tested and it isn't a loan, so it doesn't add to what you repay. There's an extra £1,000 a year for mental health and learning disability nursing, radiography, prosthetics and orthotics, orthoptics and podiatry.

Your pension doesn't reduce it

Repayments are worked out on pay before tax and other deductions, so your NHS pension contribution doesn't lower them. Overtime, unsocial hours and London weighting all count.

Two loans, one deduction

If you have, say, Plan 1 and Plan 2 loans, you pay 9% over the lower threshold once, not twice. A Postgraduate Loan is separate: its 6% is taken on top.

When it's written off

Plan 5 is written off 40 years after the April you were first due to repay; Plans 2 and 4 and Postgraduate Loans after 30 years; Plan 1 after 25 years, or at 65 for loans first paid before September 2006.