Student Loan help

djpailo

My partner is a PhD student. She is on Repayment Plan 1. She graduated in the year group 2011/2012.

From the rules, it says she can start repaying from April the following year.

You’ll be due to start repaying your loan in the April after you complete or leave your course.

But the calculator on MSE has confused me a little. Am I right in thinking she could have started paying it back from April 2013 onwards?

The rules on page 12 then state:

In England and Wales, if you took out the loan on or after 1 September 2006, but before 1
September 2012, your outstanding loan balance plus any interest will be cancelled 25 years after
the April when you first became due to repay the loan.

.
http://www.studentloanrepayment.co.uk/pls/portal/docs/PAGE/RPIPG001/RPIPS001/RPIPS006/SFE_TERMS_AND_CONDITIONS_1516_D.PDF

So clearly, from April 2013 (if I'm right from the above question earlier), 25 years onwards is 2038. Now here comes my confusion. Using the MSE calculator:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/students/student-loans-repay#tabOne

I put in some values. These arent the exact values of the loan, but just to give you guys an idea.

Which year did you first get a loan? 09/10
When do you expect to graduate? 11/12
Which country's Student Finance Company gave you the loan? England
What's your current annual salary? 19000
What's your outstanding balance? 21500
What interest rate to calculate at? 0.9%

The calculator then says:

Ready Reckoner Results
Your student loan-free date is March 2040, as it will take

24 years and 2 months

until it's paid off.

But remember, student loans are the cheapest form of long term debt so don't be disheartened if you've got a while to go.

But hold on a sec, its assuming the 25 years starts from this very date. Because if I put an annual salary of say 18,000, it gives this:

Ready Reckoner Results

Because you'll be repaying the loan for more than 25 years, it'll be wiped out before you repay it. At this point you are likely to have repaid £27,186

So is the calculator wrong? The wording from the terms and conditions pdf suggests it should wipe out by April 2038 but this calculator suggests its 25 years from presumably when you start a tax paying job? So who is right?

vlad

I thought repayments didn't start until you earn £21k ?