Analysis · Financial Times · 6 July 2026
Burnham urged to end freeze in salary threshold for student loan repayments: What It Means for Your Student Loan
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
A senior political figure is being pressed to scrap the freeze on the salary threshold at which graduates start repaying student loans. The threshold has been held at £29,385 for Plan 2 borrowers and is currently set to stay frozen until at least April 2030, which quietly increases what you repay each year even if your salary only keeps pace with inflation.
This analysis responds to reporting by Financial Times. We recommend reading the original alongside it: Burnham urged to end freeze in salary threshold for student loan repayments ↗
What has actually been reported?
The Financial Times headline signals a lobbying push: someone in a position of influence is being urged to end the freeze on the salary threshold that triggers student loan repayments. That is the crux of it. We only have the headline, so treat the detail with care, but the underlying policy it refers to is well documented and worth understanding in its own right.
The threshold at which Plan 2 borrowers begin repaying is £29,385 for the 2025-26 tax year. Government policy freezes that figure until at least April 2030. A freeze sounds neutral, but it is not. When a threshold stays flat while wages drift upward with inflation, more of your income falls above the line, so you repay more in cash terms year after year. Economists call this fiscal drag, and it is a stealthy way to raise the effective cost of a loan without changing the headline 9 percent rate.