Analysis · Times Higher Education · 7 July 2026
Reverse student loan threshold freeze and scrap RPI, MPs urge: 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 group of MPs has called on the government to reverse the long freeze on student loan repayment thresholds and to stop using RPI to set interest. This is a recommendation, not a policy change, but it targets two of the levers that quietly raise what graduates repay each year.
This analysis responds to reporting by Times Higher Education. We recommend reading the original alongside it: Reverse student loan threshold freeze and scrap RPI, MPs urge ↗
What have the MPs actually called for?
According to the headline from Times Higher Education, MPs are urging two specific changes: reversing the freeze on the repayment threshold, and scrapping RPI, the retail prices index, as the measure used to uprate loans. Both are pressure on government rather than a decision, so nothing about your repayments has changed today.
The distinction matters. A parliamentary call for change is the start of a conversation, not the end of one. The Plan 2 threshold remains frozen at £29,385 until at least April 2030 under current policy, and RPI still feeds into the interest calculation. Until a minister confirms otherwise, that is what your loan runs on.
Why these two levers? Because both work in the background. A frozen threshold means more of your salary sits above the repayment line every year that wages rise, so you pay more without any headline rate changing. RPI, which usually runs higher than CPI, the consumer prices index, inflates the balance faster. Neither shows up as a tax rise, which is precisely why campaigners dislike them.