Calculator · Plan 4
Plan 4 Student Loan Calculator for Scottish Borrowers
Written by Zubair Arshed FIA, Chartered Actuary
Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries
Actuarial Post Life and Health Actuary of the Year 2024
This Plan 4 student loan calculator projects repayments for Scottish students who started from August 2007 onwards, using market-implied inflation and industry salary data rather than fixed assumptions.
Plan 4 is quietly the most borrower-friendly undergraduate plan: it has the highest repayment threshold in the UK at £33,795 and the same capped interest formula as Plan 1. Many Scottish graduates pay nothing for years after graduating, entirely legitimately.
Repayment threshold
£33,795
Interest rate
Lower of RPI or Bank Rate + 1%
Written off after
30 years
Who is on it
Scotland, from August 2007
2025-26 tax year values. Thresholds change each April; verify at gov.uk.
How is a Plan 4 repayment calculated?
Annual repayment = 9% × (salary − £33,795)
At £38,000 salary:
9% × £4,205 = £378/year (£31.50/month)
The same salary on Plan 2 would repay £775/year
Below £33,795 you repay nothing at all
The high threshold cuts both ways. Repayments are gentle, but that also means balances erode slowly, and borrowers with larger balances or modest salaries are more likely to reach the 30-year write-off with debt remaining.
How does Plan 4 differ from Plan 1 and Plan 2?
Against Plan 2, the differences are stark: a threshold nearly £4,400 higher, no income-linked interest surcharge, and the same 30-year write-off. A Scottish graduate and a Plan 2 graduate on identical salaries can face repayments that differ by hundreds of pounds a year, purely because of where they studied.
Against Plan 1 the interest formula is identical, but Plan 4 has a higher threshold and a 30-year rather than 25-year write-off. Where you land depends mostly on salary: high earners clear Plan 4 loans comfortably, while lower earners coast to write-off. Our guide to which plan you are on covers the boundaries in full.
Why use this Plan 4 student loan calculator?
Because Plan 4 interest is capped at the lower of RPI or Bank Rate + 1%, a realistic projection needs a view on both future inflation and future rates. This calculator prices forward RPI from the gilt market for every year of your term and applies the cap annually, then anchors your salary growth to ONS data for your industry. The full methodology is public.
Run your Plan 4 projection
The calculator infers your plan from where and when you studied, then projects every year to payoff or write-off. Free, no account needed.
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