Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of (a) the average outstanding student loan balance and (b) the proportion of borrowers currently making repayments in (i) Merseyside and (ii) the North West of England.

The average outstanding student loan balance of borrowers in the North West government region who have been funded by Student Finance England was £37,000 (rounded to the nearest thousand) on 15 March 2025. This includes all loans, even those not yet liable to repay. The proportion of borrowers currently residing in the North West government region who have been funded by Student Finance England and made at least one repayment in this financial year is 46.8%.

The department does not hold student loan data for Merseyside specifically, as it is not a defined statistical geography in our datasets. Therefore, figures can only be provided at North West regional level.

Please note published national data provides the picture of borrowers’ repayment and employment status on 31 March 2025 and differs to the proportion who have made a repayment in the last year.