Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the difference between the repayment threshold that will apply in 2029-30 under current policy and the threshold that would apply had it been uprated in line with average earnings from 2016.

The forecasted repayment threshold for Plan 2 can be found within the data published in the Student Loan Forecasts for England publication here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/student-loan-forecasts-for-england/2025-26#content.

Under current policy, the Plan 2 repayment threshold is forecasted to be £29,385 in the 2029/30 financial year. This includes the impact of the Plan 2 threshold freeze from the 2027/28 financial year for three years.

The Plan 2 repayment threshold in the 2016/17 financial year was £21,000, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/previous-annual-repayment-thresholds. If the repayment threshold had been uprated in line with economy-wide average earnings from 2016, the Plan 2 repayment threshold would be £33,735 in the 2029/30 financial year. The forecasted average earnings used to uprate the threshold are from the 2026 Spring Statement Economic and Fiscal Outlook published by Office of Budget and Responsibility.

There would be a £4,350 difference if the Plan 2 repayment threshold had been uprated in line with average earnings from 2016. This difference reflects the difference in uprating mechanism, periods of threshold freezes and the one-off increase to the threshold in 2018.