Student finance - How much should I be paying?

SpeckledJim

Hi all,

To prefix this: sorry. There's going to be a few numbers in here that may require some further context. Reach out to me if required and I can clarify, but I'll give no personally identifiable info for obvious reasons.

Anyway, I'm wondering if I'm paying too much for a Plan 1 pre-2012 Student Finance England loan.

Firstly, year to date as of the end of March, my gross pay has been £26024.91

As a consequence, I've paid £363 towards my student finance plan, as detailed on my P60.

As I understand it, at this rate I won't be paying off my loan within the 25 year period because £363 don't cover the interest for this year, so my goal is to minimise my payments to them - and argue over a few quid every month I will do.

So, as a Plan 1 debtor, I only pay off 9% of anything I earn over £24990.00 per year.

Well, 26024.91 - 24990 = 1034.91

... and £363 expressed as a percentage of £1034.91 is 35.08%, not 9%.

9% is £93.14.

Have I done my maths wrong here? Can somebody let me know if I'm being a wally and, if not, what my next steps should be?

Ed-1

SpeckledJim said:

Hi all,

To prefix this: sorry. There's going to be a few numbers in here that may require some further context. Reach out to me if required and I can clarify, but I'll give no personally identifiable info for obvious reasons.

Anyway, I'm wondering if I'm paying too much for a Plan 1 pre-2012 Student Finance England loan.

Firstly, year to date as of the end of March, my gross pay has been £26024.91

As a consequence, I've paid £363 towards my student finance plan, as detailed on my P60.

As I understand it, at this rate I won't be paying off my loan within the 25 year period because £363 don't cover the interest for this year, so my goal is to minimise my payments to them - and argue over a few quid every month I will do.

So, as a Plan 1 debtor, I only pay off 9% of anything I earn over £24990.00 per year.

Well, 26024.91 - 24990 = 1034.91

... and £363 expressed as a percentage of £1034.91 is 35.08%, not 9%.

9% is £93.14.

Have I done my maths wrong here? Can somebody let me know if I'm being a wally and, if not, what my next steps should be?

It's 9% of your income over the monthly equivalent of that annual threshold that matters.

silvercar

To expand on Ed_1’s comment. 

Were there any months when you received rather more money than others eg a bonus? If so, you take 9% of everything over the monthly threshold for that month. That can lead to more than 9% over the annual threshold.