Martin Lewis has explained exactly when your student loan will be automatically cancelled – and the answer is pretty complicated.
Millions of people will never repay their student loans, which aren’t really loans but more like a 9 percent graduate tax, and they will automatically be ‘wiped off’ in a certain timeframe.
But some people will clear them if they earn enough to pay down the interest and the balance before the debt is automatically chalked off.
Exactly when you’ll be debt free by default is complex, though, and depends which part of the UK you were living in when you applied to university, and when you graduated.
Money superstar Martin Lewis explained to his Twitter (X) followers: “If you’re one of millions of people currently repaying your student loan the big question I get from many is ‘when does it wipe’.
“It’s worth remembering there are four different reasons you will stop repaying the student loan. The first and the most obvious is that you’ve cleared what you borrowed plus the interest. There’s nothing left to repay, you stop repaying.
“The second is you’ve hit the time limit. And all different variants of student loans have a time limit, it could be 30 years, could be 40 years, age 65, that depends and I’m going to run through the detail on that.
“The third is if you die, if you die your student loan does not form part of your estate, the people who inherit from you will not have to pay it off, it’s simply wiped, and never needs paying.
“And the final one, which is somewhat similar, is if you were to get a permanent disability or illness that were to stop you from ever working again you may be able to apply to get your student loan wiped at that point.”
Martin said the time period for a debt being wiped off depends where you were resident when you got the loan.
For current English students and all from September 2023, “your loan will wipe 40 years after the April after you left university.”
“For English students who started between 2012 and 2022, Welsh students from 2012, Scottish students from 2007 until today, your loan wipes after 30 years.
“For Northern Irish students starting 2012 onwards, your loan will wipe after 25 years.”
“If you started between 1998 and 2005 from England, Wales or Northern Ireland, your loan wipes when you hit age 65.
“If you started between 1998 and 2006 in Scotland, your loan wipes the earlier of 30 years after the April after you left university OR when you hit age 65.
“If you started between 2006 and 2011 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, it’s 25 years after the April after you left university.”
