Firefighter Student Loan Repayments 2026/27: £ Examples

How student loan repayments work for employees

If you have a student loan and are employed, your fire and rescue service deducts repayments through payroll, alongside Income Tax and National Insurance. GOV.UK says you repay a percentage of your income over the income threshold for your type of loan. You do not choose the amount, you cannot pay less because you have a mortgage or other costs, and the repayment does not depend on how much you owe unless the balance is nearly cleared.

The important point for firefighters is what counts as income. It is broadly the same earnings that National Insurance is charged on: basic pay, overtime, allowances and taxable payments. It is not reduced by your Firefighters' Pension Scheme contribution, because pension is deducted for tax purposes but not for NI or student loan. So a firefighter with a £5,081 pension deduction still repays on the whole £40,358.

Repayments are calculated every pay period, using thresholds scaled to that period (for a monthly paid firefighter, one twelfth of the annual figure). If you have a postgraduate loan alongside a Plan 1, 2, 4 or 5 loan, you repay both: 9% on the undergraduate plan and 6% on the postgraduate loan, each above its own threshold.

2026/27 thresholds and rates (verified)

For the 2026/27 tax year the annual repayment thresholds are £26,900 for Plan 1, £29,385 for Plan 2, £33,795 for Plan 4, £25,000 for Plan 5 (the first year Plan 5 repayments start) and £21,000 for postgraduate loans. Rates are 9% for Plans 1, 2, 4 and 5 and 6% for the postgraduate loan. GOV.UK has also announced that the Plan 1 threshold rises to £28,005 from 6 April 2027 to 5 April 2028.

Which plan you are on depends on where and when you studied, not on your job. Per GOV.UK: in England Plan 1 is for courses before 1 September 2012, Plan 2 for courses from 1 September 2012 to 31 July 2023 and Plan 5 for courses from 1 August 2023; in Wales Plan 2 covers courses from 1 September 2012; in Scotland all courses are Plan 4; in Northern Ireland all courses are Plan 1; postgraduate master's or doctoral loans are separate. Check your plan on your loan account; do not guess from your age.

Worked examples on firefighter pay points

Below are annual repayments on base pay from the 1 July 2026 NJC rates, using each plan's 2026/27 threshold. The formula is (annual pay minus threshold) x rate. Overtime, allowances and any on-call income are additional earnings and would raise the deduction.

Development firefighter (£31,539): Plan 1: (31,539 - 26,900) x 9% = £417.51 a year, £34.79 a month. Plan 2: (31,539 - 29,385) x 9% = £193.86, £16.15 a month. Plan 4: nothing, because pay is below £33,795. Plan 5: (31,539 - 25,000) x 9% = £588.51, £49.04 a month. Postgraduate: (31,539 - 21,000) x 6% = £632.34, £52.70 a month.

Competent firefighter (£40,358): Plan 1 £1,211.22 (£100.94 a month); Plan 2 £987.57 (£82.30); Plan 4 £590.67 (£49.22); Plan 5 £1,382.22 (£115.19); postgraduate £1,161.48 (£96.79). Crew Manager Competent (£44,742): Plan 2 £1,382.13 (£115.18), Plan 1 £1,605.78 (£133.81), Plan 5 £1,776.78 (£148.06). If you hold both a Plan 2 and a postgraduate loan at £40,358, add £987.57 + £1,161.48 = £2,149.05 a year, about £179.09 a month.

What overtime and on-call pay do to repayments

Overtime counts as earnings, so it is subject to the 9% (or 6%) just like basic pay, once you are above the threshold for that pay period. The tax and NI you pay on overtime are additional. Example, competent firefighter on Plan 2, monthly pay £3,363.17 (£40,358 / 12), £600 overtime one month. Without overtime the month's repayment is (£3,363.17 - £2,448.75) x 9% = £82.30. With overtime pay of £3,963.17 it is (£3,963.17 - £2,448.75) x 9% = £136.30, an extra £54.00, exactly 9% of £600.

A useful way to think about it: for someone above the threshold, every extra £100 of overtime costs 20% Income Tax (£20), 8% NI (£8) and 9% student loan (£9), leaving £63. For a Station Manager in the 40% band with 2% NI it is £40 + £2 + £9, leaving £49 of every £100. You can model these combinations with the overtime calculator, and see how the tax part works in firefighter overtime after tax.

Retained and on-call income is also earnings. If your on-call pay comes from the same employer as your main pay, it is combined for repayments; if it comes from a different employer, each employer calculates the deduction against its own pay-period threshold, and HMRC and the Student Loans Company reconcile it after the year ends. In that case you might over- or under-repay in year, which is corrected via your student loan account or Self Assessment.

Pay-award back pay and one-off payments

The 3.8% NJC award effective 1 July 2026 may reach your payslip with arrears. Arrears can inflate one month's pay and therefore that month's student loan deduction. Payroll may treat back pay in the pay period it is paid or spread it, depending on the system; either way the annual total is what matters if you are paid monthly.

Example. Suppose a competent firefighter on Plan 2 receives £390 of arrears on top of regular monthly pay of £3,363.17. Deduction on the arrears is 9% x £390 = £35.10, provided the month is already above the £2,448.75 monthly threshold, which it is. The net effect is an extra £35.10 repaid, not a special charge. See firefighter back pay for how and when payments arrive.

If you go on unpaid leave or reduced pay, repayments stop for pay periods where your pay is under the threshold. Sickness or reduced pay in a period can lower or remove the deduction; see the sick pay guide for how sick pay is paid.

Checking your payslip and fixing wrong deductions

Find the student loan line on your payslip (often 'SL' or 'Student Loan'). Compare it against the plan and threshold above: (that period's gross pay - the plan's period threshold) x 9%. If the amount looks too high, common causes are being on the wrong plan (Plan 2 instead of Plan 1), payroll still deducting after you have cleared the loan, or a postgraduate deduction you did not expect.

You can check your plan, balance and repayment history in your online account with your loan provider (Student Loans Company for England and Wales, SAAS for Scotland, Student Finance NI). If you have overpaid, the Student Loans Company can advise on a refund. If payroll is deducting for a plan type that is wrong, tell your payroll team, and if it is unresolved tell HMRC.

Note that some services use 4-weekly pay periods instead of monthly; the threshold is then scaled to the period, so the deduction in a given 4-week period is not the same as one twelfth of the annual. Use your service's payroll team for official period thresholds. Our payslip explained guide walks through each line.

Should you overpay your student loan? What to weigh up

Depending on your plan, any balance left after a fixed period is written off (check the rules for your plan on GOV.UK, as we have not verified the periods here), so for some borrowers repayments behave like an extra 9% charge on pay above the threshold rather than a debt to clear fast. Whether overpaying makes sense depends on your plan, balance, expected earnings and other goals, and this is not something we can advise on. It is worth using the official repayment calculators on GOV.UK before you decide.

What you can say generally: paying off the loan early is not compulsory, and money used to overpay is not available for a deposit or emergency fund. The interaction with mortgages is covered in the firefighter mortgage guide: the repayment reduces your take-home and lenders count it as a commitment when testing affordability.

If you are saving a deposit, the overtime to deposit tool shows how overtime turns into savings after tax, NI and loan repayments. Compare that with the budgeting guide before overpaying.

Student loans, salary and career progression

Promotion changes repayments because the threshold stays fixed and each pay rise is charged at 9% above it. A move from competent firefighter (£40,358) to Crew Manager development (£42,892) adds £2,534 of base pay, which increases the Plan 2 repayment by £228.06 a year (9% x £2,534), or £19.01 a month. After tax, NI and pension the gain is smaller than the headline, which the promotion calculator shows in full.

Similarly, moving from development to competent adds £8,819 of base pay: for a Plan 2 borrower that is £793.71 a year more in repayments (9% x £8,819). Financially the pay rise is still well worth having, because you keep the other 91% before tax and NI, but it explains why net gain feels lower than expected. See firefighter pay progression for the timeline.

For firefighters in Scotland, most Scottish-domiciled students are on Plan 4, whose threshold is £33,795 in 2026/27. That means a development firefighter on £31,539 pays nothing, but a competent firefighter on £40,358 pays £590.67. Note that Scottish Income Tax also differs; see Scotland firefighter salary.

Common mistakes and quick checks

Frequent mistakes: assuming pension contributions reduce the loan deduction (they do not); assuming take-home pay is the base; forgetting that a postgraduate loan is on top of a Plan loan; ignoring the effect of overtime; and assuming repayments continue after the balance clears. Each is quick to check against the table above and your payslip.

If your deduction seems off by a small amount each month, that is often because payroll uses official period thresholds rounded slightly differently from simple divisions. A bigger gap usually points to a plan or earnings issue. Keep the last three payslips and contact payroll first; if unresolved, use the Student Loans Company or HMRC.

• Use gross pay including overtime, not take-home.
• Do not subtract pension before applying the threshold.
• Apply 9% for Plans 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6% for postgraduate.
• Check your plan in your loan account, not by age.
• Ask payroll for the period thresholds if you are paid 4-weekly.