The maximum Maintenance Loan ranges from £9,118 to £14,135 depending on where you live while studying, and it shrinks as household income rises above £25,000. Here’s the full table for standard (non-benefits) households.

Notice the loan never disappears entirely, no matter how high household income climbs. It floors out at 44% of the maximum for students living with parents, 46.6% away from home, and 49.8% in London. Even a student from a very high-income household still qualifies for a few thousand pounds a year.

Above £25,000 of household income, the maximum loan reduces by a fixed amount for every extra pound earned, using a specific “divisor” that differs by living situation. It’s a straight-line taper, not a series of jumps.

For a student living away from home outside London, every £6.47 of household income above £25,000 cuts the loan by £1. So £10,000 of extra household income (taking it from £25,000 to £35,000) reduces the loan by £10,000 ÷ 6.47, or roughly £1,546, which lines up closely with the £1,545 difference in the table above between those two income levels.

The calculator above runs this exact formula for whichever living situation and income you enter, rather than rounding to the nearest table row.

Yes. Students who, or whose household, receive certain means-tested benefits get a meaningfully higher maximum loan and a gentler taper at lower income levels, though the two tapers converge at higher incomes.

The taper works in two stages here: a steeper reduction between £25,000 and £42,875, then the same gentler rate as standard households above that. By around £45,000 of household income, the benefits-eligible and standard loan amounts end up almost identical.

No, the Tuition Fee Loan isn’t means-tested at all. Every eligible full-time undergraduate gets the full amount, currently £9,790 for 2026/27, regardless of household income.

It’s paid straight to your university, not to you, and it exactly matches the tuition fee cap, so you never need to find the difference yourself. Combined with your Maintenance Loan, that’s your total borrowing for the year, which is exactly what the calculator above adds up.

For most students under 25, it’s your parents’ (or parent and step-parent’s) combined household income, not yours. If you count as an “independent student,” it’s your own income and your partner’s instead.

You’re generally assessed as independent if you’re 25 or older, married or in a civil partnership, have supported yourself financially for at least three years before your course starts, have no living parents, or are estranged from them. If none of those apply, your household income assessment uses your parents’ figures, even if you’re not living with them.

England’s tuition fee cap was frozen at £9,250 for eight straight years, from 2017/18 through 2024/25, before rising to £9,535 in 2025/26 and £9,790 in 2026/27. The government has already confirmed £10,050 for 2027/28.

• 2012/13: Fee cap set at £9,000, the level introduced with the major 2012 reforms.
• 2017/18: Raised to £9,250, in line with inflation at the time.
• 2017/18 to 2024/25: Frozen at £9,250 for eight consecutive years, despite the policy originally intending annual inflationary rises.
• 2025/26: First increase in eight years, to £9,535, alongside a rise in Maintenance Loan maximums.
• 2026/27: Raised again to £9,790.
• 2027/28: Already confirmed at £10,050, with fees and loans both now set to rise annually with inflation going forward.

According to analysis from the Institute for Fiscal Studies and figures reported by the BBC, if fees had simply tracked inflation every year since 2012 instead of being frozen, the 2025/26 fee would have reached roughly £14,661, well above what universities actually charged. The freeze meant the real value of tuition fee income fell substantially in the years it applied.

Here’s the part headline numbers miss: even with these recent cash increases, the IFS found that Maintenance Loan support for the poorest students is still around 10% lower in real terms than it was in 2020/21. Loans were meant to rise with forecast inflation each year, but when actual inflation ran higher than forecast for several years running, the numbers were never revisited to catch up. So while £14,135 sounds like a lot more than students got a few years ago, it buys noticeably less than the equivalent figure did back then.

No, not accurately. Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland each run their own separate student finance systems, called SAAS, Student Finance Wales, and Student Finance NI, with different fee levels, loan amounts, and rules from England’s system.

Scottish students studying in Scotland, for example, don’t pay tuition fees for their first degree at all, funded instead through the Student Awards Agency for Scotland. This calculator is built specifically for Student Finance England’s rules.

• UK Take-Home Pay Calculator, including student loan repayment deductions
• DTI Calculator, to check your debt-to-income ratio
• Paycheck Calculator USA, the US equivalent for take-home pay
• Tip Calculator, for splitting a bill and working out gratuity

The maximum Maintenance Loan ranges from £9,118 to £14,135 depending on where you live while studying, and it shrinks as household income rises above £25,000. Here’s the full table for standard (non-benefits) households.

Notice the loan never disappears entirely, no matter how high household income climbs. It floors out at 44% of the maximum for students living with parents, 46.6% away from home, and 49.8% in London. Even a student from a very high-income household still qualifies for a few thousand pounds a year.

Above £25,000 of household income, the maximum loan reduces by a fixed amount for every extra pound earned, using a specific “divisor” that differs by living situation. It’s a straight-line taper, not a series of jumps.

For a student living away from home outside London, every £6.47 of household income above £25,000 cuts the loan by £1. So £10,000 of extra household income (taking it from £25,000 to £35,000) reduces the loan by £10,000 ÷ 6.47, or roughly £1,546, which lines up closely with the £1,545 difference in the table above between those two income levels.

The calculator above runs this exact formula for whichever living situation and income you enter, rather than rounding to the nearest table row.

Yes. Students who, or whose household, receive certain means-tested benefits get a meaningfully higher maximum loan and a gentler taper at lower income levels, though the two tapers converge at higher incomes.

The taper works in two stages here: a steeper reduction between £25,000 and £42,875, then the same gentler rate as standard households above that. By around £45,000 of household income, the benefits-eligible and standard loan amounts end up almost identical.

No, the Tuition Fee Loan isn’t means-tested at all. Every eligible full-time undergraduate gets the full amount, currently £9,790 for 2026/27, regardless of household income.

It’s paid straight to your university, not to you, and it exactly matches the tuition fee cap, so you never need to find the difference yourself. Combined with your Maintenance Loan, that’s your total borrowing for the year, which is exactly what the calculator above adds up.

For most students under 25, it’s your parents’ (or parent and step-parent’s) combined household income, not yours. If you count as an “independent student,” it’s your own income and your partner’s instead.

You’re generally assessed as independent if you’re 25 or older, married or in a civil partnership, have supported yourself financially for at least three years before your course starts, have no living parents, or are estranged from them. If none of those apply, your household income assessment uses your parents’ figures, even if you’re not living with them.

England’s tuition fee cap was frozen at £9,250 for eight straight years, from 2017/18 through 2024/25, before rising to £9,535 in 2025/26 and £9,790 in 2026/27. The government has already confirmed £10,050 for 2027/28.

• 2012/13: Fee cap set at £9,000, the level introduced with the major 2012 reforms.
• 2017/18: Raised to £9,250, in line with inflation at the time.
• 2017/18 to 2024/25: Frozen at £9,250 for eight consecutive years, despite the policy originally intending annual inflationary rises.
• 2025/26: First increase in eight years, to £9,535, alongside a rise in Maintenance Loan maximums.
• 2026/27: Raised again to £9,790.
• 2027/28: Already confirmed at £10,050, with fees and loans both now set to rise annually with inflation going forward.

According to analysis from the Institute for Fiscal Studies and figures reported by the BBC, if fees had simply tracked inflation every year since 2012 instead of being frozen, the 2025/26 fee would have reached roughly £14,661, well above what universities actually charged. The freeze meant the real value of tuition fee income fell substantially in the years it applied.

Here’s the part headline numbers miss: even with these recent cash increases, the IFS found that Maintenance Loan support for the poorest students is still around 10% lower in real terms than it was in 2020/21. Loans were meant to rise with forecast inflation each year, but when actual inflation ran higher than forecast for several years running, the numbers were never revisited to catch up. So while £14,135 sounds like a lot more than students got a few years ago, it buys noticeably less than the equivalent figure did back then.

No, not accurately. Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland each run their own separate student finance systems, called SAAS, Student Finance Wales, and Student Finance NI, with different fee levels, loan amounts, and rules from England’s system.

Scottish students studying in Scotland, for example, don’t pay tuition fees for their first degree at all, funded instead through the Student Awards Agency for Scotland. This calculator is built specifically for Student Finance England’s rules.

• UK Take-Home Pay Calculator, including student loan repayment deductions
• DTI Calculator, to check your debt-to-income ratio
• Paycheck Calculator USA, the US equivalent for take-home pay
• Tip Calculator, for splitting a bill and working out gratuity

The maximum Maintenance Loan ranges from £9,118 to £14,135 depending on where you live while studying, and it shrinks as household income rises above £25,000. Here’s the full table for standard (non-benefits) households.

Notice the loan never disappears entirely, no matter how high household income climbs. It floors out at 44% of the maximum for students living with parents, 46.6% away from home, and 49.8% in London. Even a student from a very high-income household still qualifies for a few thousand pounds a year.

Above £25,000 of household income, the maximum loan reduces by a fixed amount for every extra pound earned, using a specific “divisor” that differs by living situation. It’s a straight-line taper, not a series of jumps.

For a student living away from home outside London, every £6.47 of household income above £25,000 cuts the loan by £1. So £10,000 of extra household income (taking it from £25,000 to £35,000) reduces the loan by £10,000 ÷ 6.47, or roughly £1,546, which lines up closely with the £1,545 difference in the table above between those two income levels.

The calculator above runs this exact formula for whichever living situation and income you enter, rather than rounding to the nearest table row.

Yes. Students who, or whose household, receive certain means-tested benefits get a meaningfully higher maximum loan and a gentler taper at lower income levels, though the two tapers converge at higher incomes.

The taper works in two stages here: a steeper reduction between £25,000 and £42,875, then the same gentler rate as standard households above that. By around £45,000 of household income, the benefits-eligible and standard loan amounts end up almost identical.

No, the Tuition Fee Loan isn’t means-tested at all. Every eligible full-time undergraduate gets the full amount, currently £9,790 for 2026/27, regardless of household income.

It’s paid straight to your university, not to you, and it exactly matches the tuition fee cap, so you never need to find the difference yourself. Combined with your Maintenance Loan, that’s your total borrowing for the year, which is exactly what the calculator above adds up.

For most students under 25, it’s your parents’ (or parent and step-parent’s) combined household income, not yours. If you count as an “independent student,” it’s your own income and your partner’s instead.

You’re generally assessed as independent if you’re 25 or older, married or in a civil partnership, have supported yourself financially for at least three years before your course starts, have no living parents, or are estranged from them. If none of those apply, your household income assessment uses your parents’ figures, even if you’re not living with them.

England’s tuition fee cap was frozen at £9,250 for eight straight years, from 2017/18 through 2024/25, before rising to £9,535 in 2025/26 and £9,790 in 2026/27. The government has already confirmed £10,050 for 2027/28.

• 2012/13: Fee cap set at £9,000, the level introduced with the major 2012 reforms.
• 2017/18: Raised to £9,250, in line with inflation at the time.
• 2017/18 to 2024/25: Frozen at £9,250 for eight consecutive years, despite the policy originally intending annual inflationary rises.
• 2025/26: First increase in eight years, to £9,535, alongside a rise in Maintenance Loan maximums.
• 2026/27: Raised again to £9,790.
• 2027/28: Already confirmed at £10,050, with fees and loans both now set to rise annually with inflation going forward.

According to analysis from the Institute for Fiscal Studies and figures reported by the BBC, if fees had simply tracked inflation every year since 2012 instead of being frozen, the 2025/26 fee would have reached roughly £14,661, well above what universities actually charged. The freeze meant the real value of tuition fee income fell substantially in the years it applied.

Here’s the part headline numbers miss: even with these recent cash increases, the IFS found that Maintenance Loan support for the poorest students is still around 10% lower in real terms than it was in 2020/21. Loans were meant to rise with forecast inflation each year, but when actual inflation ran higher than forecast for several years running, the numbers were never revisited to catch up. So while £14,135 sounds like a lot more than students got a few years ago, it buys noticeably less than the equivalent figure did back then.

No, not accurately. Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland each run their own separate student finance systems, called SAAS, Student Finance Wales, and Student Finance NI, with different fee levels, loan amounts, and rules from England’s system.

Scottish students studying in Scotland, for example, don’t pay tuition fees for their first degree at all, funded instead through the Student Awards Agency for Scotland. This calculator is built specifically for Student Finance England’s rules.

• UK Take-Home Pay Calculator, including student loan repayment deductions
• DTI Calculator, to check your debt-to-income ratio
• Paycheck Calculator USA, the US equivalent for take-home pay
• Tip Calculator, for splitting a bill and working out gratuity

The maximum Maintenance Loan ranges from £9,118 to £14,135 depending on where you live while studying, and it shrinks as household income rises above £25,000. Here’s the full table for standard (non-benefits) households.

Notice the loan never disappears entirely, no matter how high household income climbs. It floors out at 44% of the maximum for students living with parents, 46.6% away from home, and 49.8% in London. Even a student from a very high-income household still qualifies for a few thousand pounds a year.

Above £25,000 of household income, the maximum loan reduces by a fixed amount for every extra pound earned, using a specific “divisor” that differs by living situation. It’s a straight-line taper, not a series of jumps.

For a student living away from home outside London, every £6.47 of household income above £25,000 cuts the loan by £1. So £10,000 of extra household income (taking it from £25,000 to £35,000) reduces the loan by £10,000 ÷ 6.47, or roughly £1,546, which lines up closely with the £1,545 difference in the table above between those two income levels.

The calculator above runs this exact formula for whichever living situation and income you enter, rather than rounding to the nearest table row.

Yes. Students who, or whose household, receive certain means-tested benefits get a meaningfully higher maximum loan and a gentler taper at lower income levels, though the two tapers converge at higher incomes.

The taper works in two stages here: a steeper reduction between £25,000 and £42,875, then the same gentler rate as standard households above that. By around £45,000 of household income, the benefits-eligible and standard loan amounts end up almost identical.

No, the Tuition Fee Loan isn’t means-tested at all. Every eligible full-time undergraduate gets the full amount, currently £9,790 for 2026/27, regardless of household income.

It’s paid straight to your university, not to you, and it exactly matches the tuition fee cap, so you never need to find the difference yourself. Combined with your Maintenance Loan, that’s your total borrowing for the year, which is exactly what the calculator above adds up.

For most students under 25, it’s your parents’ (or parent and step-parent’s) combined household income, not yours. If you count as an “independent student,” it’s your own income and your partner’s instead.

You’re generally assessed as independent if you’re 25 or older, married or in a civil partnership, have supported yourself financially for at least three years before your course starts, have no living parents, or are estranged from them. If none of those apply, your household income assessment uses your parents’ figures, even if you’re not living with them.

England’s tuition fee cap was frozen at £9,250 for eight straight years, from 2017/18 through 2024/25, before rising to £9,535 in 2025/26 and £9,790 in 2026/27. The government has already confirmed £10,050 for 2027/28.

• 2012/13: Fee cap set at £9,000, the level introduced with the major 2012 reforms.
• 2017/18: Raised to £9,250, in line with inflation at the time.
• 2017/18 to 2024/25: Frozen at £9,250 for eight consecutive years, despite the policy originally intending annual inflationary rises.
• 2025/26: First increase in eight years, to £9,535, alongside a rise in Maintenance Loan maximums.
• 2026/27: Raised again to £9,790.
• 2027/28: Already confirmed at £10,050, with fees and loans both now set to rise annually with inflation going forward.

According to analysis from the Institute for Fiscal Studies and figures reported by the BBC, if fees had simply tracked inflation every year since 2012 instead of being frozen, the 2025/26 fee would have reached roughly £14,661, well above what universities actually charged. The freeze meant the real value of tuition fee income fell substantially in the years it applied.

Here’s the part headline numbers miss: even with these recent cash increases, the IFS found that Maintenance Loan support for the poorest students is still around 10% lower in real terms than it was in 2020/21. Loans were meant to rise with forecast inflation each year, but when actual inflation ran higher than forecast for several years running, the numbers were never revisited to catch up. So while £14,135 sounds like a lot more than students got a few years ago, it buys noticeably less than the equivalent figure did back then.

No, not accurately. Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland each run their own separate student finance systems, called SAAS, Student Finance Wales, and Student Finance NI, with different fee levels, loan amounts, and rules from England’s system.

Scottish students studying in Scotland, for example, don’t pay tuition fees for their first degree at all, funded instead through the Student Awards Agency for Scotland. This calculator is built specifically for Student Finance England’s rules.

• UK Take-Home Pay Calculator, including student loan repayment deductions
• DTI Calculator, to check your debt-to-income ratio
• Paycheck Calculator USA, the US equivalent for take-home pay
• Tip Calculator, for splitting a bill and working out gratuity

The maximum Maintenance Loan ranges from £9,118 to £14,135 depending on where you live while studying, and it shrinks as household income rises above £25,000. Here’s the full table for standard (non-benefits) households.

Notice the loan never disappears entirely, no matter how high household income climbs. It floors out at 44% of the maximum for students living with parents, 46.6% away from home, and 49.8% in London. Even a student from a very high-income household still qualifies for a few thousand pounds a year.

Above £25,000 of household income, the maximum loan reduces by a fixed amount for every extra pound earned, using a specific “divisor” that differs by living situation. It’s a straight-line taper, not a series of jumps.

For a student living away from home outside London, every £6.47 of household income above £25,000 cuts the loan by £1. So £10,000 of extra household income (taking it from £25,000 to £35,000) reduces the loan by £10,000 ÷ 6.47, or roughly £1,546, which lines up closely with the £1,545 difference in the table above between those two income levels.

The calculator above runs this exact formula for whichever living situation and income you enter, rather than rounding to the nearest table row.

Yes. Students who, or whose household, receive certain means-tested benefits get a meaningfully higher maximum loan and a gentler taper at lower income levels, though the two tapers converge at higher incomes.

The taper works in two stages here: a steeper reduction between £25,000 and £42,875, then the same gentler rate as standard households above that. By around £45,000 of household income, the benefits-eligible and standard loan amounts end up almost identical.

No, the Tuition Fee Loan isn’t means-tested at all. Every eligible full-time undergraduate gets the full amount, currently £9,790 for 2026/27, regardless of household income.

It’s paid straight to your university, not to you, and it exactly matches the tuition fee cap, so you never need to find the difference yourself. Combined with your Maintenance Loan, that’s your total borrowing for the year, which is exactly what the calculator above adds up.

For most students under 25, it’s your parents’ (or parent and step-parent’s) combined household income, not yours. If you count as an “independent student,” it’s your own income and your partner’s instead.

You’re generally assessed as independent if you’re 25 or older, married or in a civil partnership, have supported yourself financially for at least three years before your course starts, have no living parents, or are estranged from them. If none of those apply, your household income assessment uses your parents’ figures, even if you’re not living with them.

England’s tuition fee cap was frozen at £9,250 for eight straight years, from 2017/18 through 2024/25, before rising to £9,535 in 2025/26 and £9,790 in 2026/27. The government has already confirmed £10,050 for 2027/28.

• 2012/13: Fee cap set at £9,000, the level introduced with the major 2012 reforms.
• 2017/18: Raised to £9,250, in line with inflation at the time.
• 2017/18 to 2024/25: Frozen at £9,250 for eight consecutive years, despite the policy originally intending annual inflationary rises.
• 2025/26: First increase in eight years, to £9,535, alongside a rise in Maintenance Loan maximums.
• 2026/27: Raised again to £9,790.
• 2027/28: Already confirmed at £10,050, with fees and loans both now set to rise annually with inflation going forward.

According to analysis from the Institute for Fiscal Studies and figures reported by the BBC, if fees had simply tracked inflation every year since 2012 instead of being frozen, the 2025/26 fee would have reached roughly £14,661, well above what universities actually charged. The freeze meant the real value of tuition fee income fell substantially in the years it applied.

Here’s the part headline numbers miss: even with these recent cash increases, the IFS found that Maintenance Loan support for the poorest students is still around 10% lower in real terms than it was in 2020/21. Loans were meant to rise with forecast inflation each year, but when actual inflation ran higher than forecast for several years running, the numbers were never revisited to catch up. So while £14,135 sounds like a lot more than students got a few years ago, it buys noticeably less than the equivalent figure did back then.

No, not accurately. Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland each run their own separate student finance systems, called SAAS, Student Finance Wales, and Student Finance NI, with different fee levels, loan amounts, and rules from England’s system.

Scottish students studying in Scotland, for example, don’t pay tuition fees for their first degree at all, funded instead through the Student Awards Agency for Scotland. This calculator is built specifically for Student Finance England’s rules.

• UK Take-Home Pay Calculator, including student loan repayment deductions
• DTI Calculator, to check your debt-to-income ratio
• Paycheck Calculator USA, the US equivalent for take-home pay
• Tip Calculator, for splitting a bill and working out gratuity

The maximum Maintenance Loan ranges from £9,118 to £14,135 depending on where you live while studying, and it shrinks as household income rises above £25,000. Here’s the full table for standard (non-benefits) households.

Notice the loan never disappears entirely, no matter how high household income climbs. It floors out at 44% of the maximum for students living with parents, 46.6% away from home, and 49.8% in London. Even a student from a very high-income household still qualifies for a few thousand pounds a year.

Above £25,000 of household income, the maximum loan reduces by a fixed amount for every extra pound earned, using a specific “divisor” that differs by living situation. It’s a straight-line taper, not a series of jumps.

For a student living away from home outside London, every £6.47 of household income above £25,000 cuts the loan by £1. So £10,000 of extra household income (taking it from £25,000 to £35,000) reduces the loan by £10,000 ÷ 6.47, or roughly £1,546, which lines up closely with the £1,545 difference in the table above between those two income levels.

The calculator above runs this exact formula for whichever living situation and income you enter, rather than rounding to the nearest table row.

Yes. Students who, or whose household, receive certain means-tested benefits get a meaningfully higher maximum loan and a gentler taper at lower income levels, though the two tapers converge at higher incomes.

The taper works in two stages here: a steeper reduction between £25,000 and £42,875, then the same gentler rate as standard households above that. By around £45,000 of household income, the benefits-eligible and standard loan amounts end up almost identical.

No, the Tuition Fee Loan isn’t means-tested at all. Every eligible full-time undergraduate gets the full amount, currently £9,790 for 2026/27, regardless of household income.

It’s paid straight to your university, not to you, and it exactly matches the tuition fee cap, so you never need to find the difference yourself. Combined with your Maintenance Loan, that’s your total borrowing for the year, which is exactly what the calculator above adds up.

For most students under 25, it’s your parents’ (or parent and step-parent’s) combined household income, not yours. If you count as an “independent student,” it’s your own income and your partner’s instead.

You’re generally assessed as independent if you’re 25 or older, married or in a civil partnership, have supported yourself financially for at least three years before your course starts, have no living parents, or are estranged from them. If none of those apply, your household income assessment uses your parents’ figures, even if you’re not living with them.

England’s tuition fee cap was frozen at £9,250 for eight straight years, from 2017/18 through 2024/25, before rising to £9,535 in 2025/26 and £9,790 in 2026/27. The government has already confirmed £10,050 for 2027/28.

• 2012/13: Fee cap set at £9,000, the level introduced with the major 2012 reforms.
• 2017/18: Raised to £9,250, in line with inflation at the time.
• 2017/18 to 2024/25: Frozen at £9,250 for eight consecutive years, despite the policy originally intending annual inflationary rises.
• 2025/26: First increase in eight years, to £9,535, alongside a rise in Maintenance Loan maximums.
• 2026/27: Raised again to £9,790.
• 2027/28: Already confirmed at £10,050, with fees and loans both now set to rise annually with inflation going forward.

According to analysis from the Institute for Fiscal Studies and figures reported by the BBC, if fees had simply tracked inflation every year since 2012 instead of being frozen, the 2025/26 fee would have reached roughly £14,661, well above what universities actually charged. The freeze meant the real value of tuition fee income fell substantially in the years it applied.

Here’s the part headline numbers miss: even with these recent cash increases, the IFS found that Maintenance Loan support for the poorest students is still around 10% lower in real terms than it was in 2020/21. Loans were meant to rise with forecast inflation each year, but when actual inflation ran higher than forecast for several years running, the numbers were never revisited to catch up. So while £14,135 sounds like a lot more than students got a few years ago, it buys noticeably less than the equivalent figure did back then.

No, not accurately. Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland each run their own separate student finance systems, called SAAS, Student Finance Wales, and Student Finance NI, with different fee levels, loan amounts, and rules from England’s system.

Scottish students studying in Scotland, for example, don’t pay tuition fees for their first degree at all, funded instead through the Student Awards Agency for Scotland. This calculator is built specifically for Student Finance England’s rules.

• UK Take-Home Pay Calculator, including student loan repayment deductions
• DTI Calculator, to check your debt-to-income ratio
• Paycheck Calculator USA, the US equivalent for take-home pay
• Tip Calculator, for splitting a bill and working out gratuity

The maximum Maintenance Loan ranges from £9,118 to £14,135 depending on where you live while studying, and it shrinks as household income rises above £25,000. Here’s the full table for standard (non-benefits) households.

Notice the loan never disappears entirely, no matter how high household income climbs. It floors out at 44% of the maximum for students living with parents, 46.6% away from home, and 49.8% in London. Even a student from a very high-income household still qualifies for a few thousand pounds a year.

Above £25,000 of household income, the maximum loan reduces by a fixed amount for every extra pound earned, using a specific “divisor” that differs by living situation. It’s a straight-line taper, not a series of jumps.

For a student living away from home outside London, every £6.47 of household income above £25,000 cuts the loan by £1. So £10,000 of extra household income (taking it from £25,000 to £35,000) reduces the loan by £10,000 ÷ 6.47, or roughly £1,546, which lines up closely with the £1,545 difference in the table above between those two income levels.

The calculator above runs this exact formula for whichever living situation and income you enter, rather than rounding to the nearest table row.

Yes. Students who, or whose household, receive certain means-tested benefits get a meaningfully higher maximum loan and a gentler taper at lower income levels, though the two tapers converge at higher incomes.

The taper works in two stages here: a steeper reduction between £25,000 and £42,875, then the same gentler rate as standard households above that. By around £45,000 of household income, the benefits-eligible and standard loan amounts end up almost identical.

No, the Tuition Fee Loan isn’t means-tested at all. Every eligible full-time undergraduate gets the full amount, currently £9,790 for 2026/27, regardless of household income.

It’s paid straight to your university, not to you, and it exactly matches the tuition fee cap, so you never need to find the difference yourself. Combined with your Maintenance Loan, that’s your total borrowing for the year, which is exactly what the calculator above adds up.

For most students under 25, it’s your parents’ (or parent and step-parent’s) combined household income, not yours. If you count as an “independent student,” it’s your own income and your partner’s instead.

You’re generally assessed as independent if you’re 25 or older, married or in a civil partnership, have supported yourself financially for at least three years before your course starts, have no living parents, or are estranged from them. If none of those apply, your household income assessment uses your parents’ figures, even if you’re not living with them.

England’s tuition fee cap was frozen at £9,250 for eight straight years, from 2017/18 through 2024/25, before rising to £9,535 in 2025/26 and £9,790 in 2026/27. The government has already confirmed £10,050 for 2027/28.

• 2012/13: Fee cap set at £9,000, the level introduced with the major 2012 reforms.
• 2017/18: Raised to £9,250, in line with inflation at the time.
• 2017/18 to 2024/25: Frozen at £9,250 for eight consecutive years, despite the policy originally intending annual inflationary rises.
• 2025/26: First increase in eight years, to £9,535, alongside a rise in Maintenance Loan maximums.
• 2026/27: Raised again to £9,790.
• 2027/28: Already confirmed at £10,050, with fees and loans both now set to rise annually with inflation going forward.

According to analysis from the Institute for Fiscal Studies and figures reported by the BBC, if fees had simply tracked inflation every year since 2012 instead of being frozen, the 2025/26 fee would have reached roughly £14,661, well above what universities actually charged. The freeze meant the real value of tuition fee income fell substantially in the years it applied.

Here’s the part headline numbers miss: even with these recent cash increases, the IFS found that Maintenance Loan support for the poorest students is still around 10% lower in real terms than it was in 2020/21. Loans were meant to rise with forecast inflation each year, but when actual inflation ran higher than forecast for several years running, the numbers were never revisited to catch up. So while £14,135 sounds like a lot more than students got a few years ago, it buys noticeably less than the equivalent figure did back then.

No, not accurately. Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland each run their own separate student finance systems, called SAAS, Student Finance Wales, and Student Finance NI, with different fee levels, loan amounts, and rules from England’s system.

Scottish students studying in Scotland, for example, don’t pay tuition fees for their first degree at all, funded instead through the Student Awards Agency for Scotland. This calculator is built specifically for Student Finance England’s rules.

• UK Take-Home Pay Calculator, including student loan repayment deductions
• DTI Calculator, to check your debt-to-income ratio
• Paycheck Calculator USA, the US equivalent for take-home pay
• Tip Calculator, for splitting a bill and working out gratuity

The maximum Maintenance Loan ranges from £9,118 to £14,135 depending on where you live while studying, and it shrinks as household income rises above £25,000. Here’s the full table for standard (non-benefits) households.

Notice the loan never disappears entirely, no matter how high household income climbs. It floors out at 44% of the maximum for students living with parents, 46.6% away from home, and 49.8% in London. Even a student from a very high-income household still qualifies for a few thousand pounds a year.

Above £25,000 of household income, the maximum loan reduces by a fixed amount for every extra pound earned, using a specific “divisor” that differs by living situation. It’s a straight-line taper, not a series of jumps.

For a student living away from home outside London, every £6.47 of household income above £25,000 cuts the loan by £1. So £10,000 of extra household income (taking it from £25,000 to £35,000) reduces the loan by £10,000 ÷ 6.47, or roughly £1,546, which lines up closely with the £1,545 difference in the table above between those two income levels.

The calculator above runs this exact formula for whichever living situation and income you enter, rather than rounding to the nearest table row.

Yes. Students who, or whose household, receive certain means-tested benefits get a meaningfully higher maximum loan and a gentler taper at lower income levels, though the two tapers converge at higher incomes.

The taper works in two stages here: a steeper reduction between £25,000 and £42,875, then the same gentler rate as standard households above that. By around £45,000 of household income, the benefits-eligible and standard loan amounts end up almost identical.

No, the Tuition Fee Loan isn’t means-tested at all. Every eligible full-time undergraduate gets the full amount, currently £9,790 for 2026/27, regardless of household income.

It’s paid straight to your university, not to you, and it exactly matches the tuition fee cap, so you never need to find the difference yourself. Combined with your Maintenance Loan, that’s your total borrowing for the year, which is exactly what the calculator above adds up.

For most students under 25, it’s your parents’ (or parent and step-parent’s) combined household income, not yours. If you count as an “independent student,” it’s your own income and your partner’s instead.

You’re generally assessed as independent if you’re 25 or older, married or in a civil partnership, have supported yourself financially for at least three years before your course starts, have no living parents, or are estranged from them. If none of those apply, your household income assessment uses your parents’ figures, even if you’re not living with them.

England’s tuition fee cap was frozen at £9,250 for eight straight years, from 2017/18 through 2024/25, before rising to £9,535 in 2025/26 and £9,790 in 2026/27. The government has already confirmed £10,050 for 2027/28.

• 2012/13: Fee cap set at £9,000, the level introduced with the major 2012 reforms.
• 2017/18: Raised to £9,250, in line with inflation at the time.
• 2017/18 to 2024/25: Frozen at £9,250 for eight consecutive years, despite the policy originally intending annual inflationary rises.
• 2025/26: First increase in eight years, to £9,535, alongside a rise in Maintenance Loan maximums.
• 2026/27: Raised again to £9,790.
• 2027/28: Already confirmed at £10,050, with fees and loans both now set to rise annually with inflation going forward.

According to analysis from the Institute for Fiscal Studies and figures reported by the BBC, if fees had simply tracked inflation every year since 2012 instead of being frozen, the 2025/26 fee would have reached roughly £14,661, well above what universities actually charged. The freeze meant the real value of tuition fee income fell substantially in the years it applied.

Here’s the part headline numbers miss: even with these recent cash increases, the IFS found that Maintenance Loan support for the poorest students is still around 10% lower in real terms than it was in 2020/21. Loans were meant to rise with forecast inflation each year, but when actual inflation ran higher than forecast for several years running, the numbers were never revisited to catch up. So while £14,135 sounds like a lot more than students got a few years ago, it buys noticeably less than the equivalent figure did back then.

No, not accurately. Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland each run their own separate student finance systems, called SAAS, Student Finance Wales, and Student Finance NI, with different fee levels, loan amounts, and rules from England’s system.

Scottish students studying in Scotland, for example, don’t pay tuition fees for their first degree at all, funded instead through the Student Awards Agency for Scotland. This calculator is built specifically for Student Finance England’s rules.

• UK Take-Home Pay Calculator, including student loan repayment deductions
• DTI Calculator, to check your debt-to-income ratio
• Paycheck Calculator USA, the US equivalent for take-home pay
• Tip Calculator, for splitting a bill and working out gratuity

The maximum Maintenance Loan ranges from £9,118 to £14,135 depending on where you live while studying, and it shrinks as household income rises above £25,000. Here’s the full table for standard (non-benefits) households.

Notice the loan never disappears entirely, no matter how high household income climbs. It floors out at 44% of the maximum for students living with parents, 46.6% away from home, and 49.8% in London. Even a student from a very high-income household still qualifies for a few thousand pounds a year.

Above £25,000 of household income, the maximum loan reduces by a fixed amount for every extra pound earned, using a specific “divisor” that differs by living situation. It’s a straight-line taper, not a series of jumps.

For a student living away from home outside London, every £6.47 of household income above £25,000 cuts the loan by £1. So £10,000 of extra household income (taking it from £25,000 to £35,000) reduces the loan by £10,000 ÷ 6.47, or roughly £1,546, which lines up closely with the £1,545 difference in the table above between those two income levels.

The calculator above runs this exact formula for whichever living situation and income you enter, rather than rounding to the nearest table row.

Yes. Students who, or whose household, receive certain means-tested benefits get a meaningfully higher maximum loan and a gentler taper at lower income levels, though the two tapers converge at higher incomes.

The taper works in two stages here: a steeper reduction between £25,000 and £42,875, then the same gentler rate as standard households above that. By around £45,000 of household income, the benefits-eligible and standard loan amounts end up almost identical.

No, the Tuition Fee Loan isn’t means-tested at all. Every eligible full-time undergraduate gets the full amount, currently £9,790 for 2026/27, regardless of household income.

It’s paid straight to your university, not to you, and it exactly matches the tuition fee cap, so you never need to find the difference yourself. Combined with your Maintenance Loan, that’s your total borrowing for the year, which is exactly what the calculator above adds up.

For most students under 25, it’s your parents’ (or parent and step-parent’s) combined household income, not yours. If you count as an “independent student,” it’s your own income and your partner’s instead.

You’re generally assessed as independent if you’re 25 or older, married or in a civil partnership, have supported yourself financially for at least three years before your course starts, have no living parents, or are estranged from them. If none of those apply, your household income assessment uses your parents’ figures, even if you’re not living with them.

England’s tuition fee cap was frozen at £9,250 for eight straight years, from 2017/18 through 2024/25, before rising to £9,535 in 2025/26 and £9,790 in 2026/27. The government has already confirmed £10,050 for 2027/28.

• 2012/13: Fee cap set at £9,000, the level introduced with the major 2012 reforms.
• 2017/18: Raised to £9,250, in line with inflation at the time.
• 2017/18 to 2024/25: Frozen at £9,250 for eight consecutive years, despite the policy originally intending annual inflationary rises.
• 2025/26: First increase in eight years, to £9,535, alongside a rise in Maintenance Loan maximums.
• 2026/27: Raised again to £9,790.
• 2027/28: Already confirmed at £10,050, with fees and loans both now set to rise annually with inflation going forward.

According to analysis from the Institute for Fiscal Studies and figures reported by the BBC, if fees had simply tracked inflation every year since 2012 instead of being frozen, the 2025/26 fee would have reached roughly £14,661, well above what universities actually charged. The freeze meant the real value of tuition fee income fell substantially in the years it applied.

Here’s the part headline numbers miss: even with these recent cash increases, the IFS found that Maintenance Loan support for the poorest students is still around 10% lower in real terms than it was in 2020/21. Loans were meant to rise with forecast inflation each year, but when actual inflation ran higher than forecast for several years running, the numbers were never revisited to catch up. So while £14,135 sounds like a lot more than students got a few years ago, it buys noticeably less than the equivalent figure did back then.

No, not accurately. Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland each run their own separate student finance systems, called SAAS, Student Finance Wales, and Student Finance NI, with different fee levels, loan amounts, and rules from England’s system.

Scottish students studying in Scotland, for example, don’t pay tuition fees for their first degree at all, funded instead through the Student Awards Agency for Scotland. This calculator is built specifically for Student Finance England’s rules.

• UK Take-Home Pay Calculator, including student loan repayment deductions
• DTI Calculator, to check your debt-to-income ratio
• Paycheck Calculator USA, the US equivalent for take-home pay
• Tip Calculator, for splitting a bill and working out gratuity

The maximum Maintenance Loan ranges from £9,118 to £14,135 depending on where you live while studying, and it shrinks as household income rises above £25,000. Here’s the full table for standard (non-benefits) households.

Notice the loan never disappears entirely, no matter how high household income climbs. It floors out at 44% of the maximum for students living with parents, 46.6% away from home, and 49.8% in London. Even a student from a very high-income household still qualifies for a few thousand pounds a year.

Above £25,000 of household income, the maximum loan reduces by a fixed amount for every extra pound earned, using a specific “divisor” that differs by living situation. It’s a straight-line taper, not a series of jumps.

For a student living away from home outside London, every £6.47 of household income above £25,000 cuts the loan by £1. So £10,000 of extra household income (taking it from £25,000 to £35,000) reduces the loan by £10,000 ÷ 6.47, or roughly £1,546, which lines up closely with the £1,545 difference in the table above between those two income levels.

The calculator above runs this exact formula for whichever living situation and income you enter, rather than rounding to the nearest table row.

Yes. Students who, or whose household, receive certain means-tested benefits get a meaningfully higher maximum loan and a gentler taper at lower income levels, though the two tapers converge at higher incomes.

The taper works in two stages here: a steeper reduction between £25,000 and £42,875, then the same gentler rate as standard households above that. By around £45,000 of household income, the benefits-eligible and standard loan amounts end up almost identical.

No, the Tuition Fee Loan isn’t means-tested at all. Every eligible full-time undergraduate gets the full amount, currently £9,790 for 2026/27, regardless of household income.

It’s paid straight to your university, not to you, and it exactly matches the tuition fee cap, so you never need to find the difference yourself. Combined with your Maintenance Loan, that’s your total borrowing for the year, which is exactly what the calculator above adds up.

For most students under 25, it’s your parents’ (or parent and step-parent’s) combined household income, not yours. If you count as an “independent student,” it’s your own income and your partner’s instead.

You’re generally assessed as independent if you’re 25 or older, married or in a civil partnership, have supported yourself financially for at least three years before your course starts, have no living parents, or are estranged from them. If none of those apply, your household income assessment uses your parents’ figures, even if you’re not living with them.

England’s tuition fee cap was frozen at £9,250 for eight straight years, from 2017/18 through 2024/25, before rising to £9,535 in 2025/26 and £9,790 in 2026/27. The government has already confirmed £10,050 for 2027/28.

• 2012/13: Fee cap set at £9,000, the level introduced with the major 2012 reforms.
• 2017/18: Raised to £9,250, in line with inflation at the time.
• 2017/18 to 2024/25: Frozen at £9,250 for eight consecutive years, despite the policy originally intending annual inflationary rises.
• 2025/26: First increase in eight years, to £9,535, alongside a rise in Maintenance Loan maximums.
• 2026/27: Raised again to £9,790.
• 2027/28: Already confirmed at £10,050, with fees and loans both now set to rise annually with inflation going forward.

According to analysis from the Institute for Fiscal Studies and figures reported by the BBC, if fees had simply tracked inflation every year since 2012 instead of being frozen, the 2025/26 fee would have reached roughly £14,661, well above what universities actually charged. The freeze meant the real value of tuition fee income fell substantially in the years it applied.

Here’s the part headline numbers miss: even with these recent cash increases, the IFS found that Maintenance Loan support for the poorest students is still around 10% lower in real terms than it was in 2020/21. Loans were meant to rise with forecast inflation each year, but when actual inflation ran higher than forecast for several years running, the numbers were never revisited to catch up. So while £14,135 sounds like a lot more than students got a few years ago, it buys noticeably less than the equivalent figure did back then.

No, not accurately. Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland each run their own separate student finance systems, called SAAS, Student Finance Wales, and Student Finance NI, with different fee levels, loan amounts, and rules from England’s system.

Scottish students studying in Scotland, for example, don’t pay tuition fees for their first degree at all, funded instead through the Student Awards Agency for Scotland. This calculator is built specifically for Student Finance England’s rules.

• UK Take-Home Pay Calculator, including student loan repayment deductions
• DTI Calculator, to check your debt-to-income ratio
• Paycheck Calculator USA, the US equivalent for take-home pay
• Tip Calculator, for splitting a bill and working out gratuity

The maximum Maintenance Loan ranges from £9,118 to £14,135 depending on where you live while studying, and it shrinks as household income rises above £25,000. Here’s the full table for standard (non-benefits) households.

Notice the loan never disappears entirely, no matter how high household income climbs. It floors out at 44% of the maximum for students living with parents, 46.6% away from home, and 49.8% in London. Even a student from a very high-income household still qualifies for a few thousand pounds a year.

Above £25,000 of household income, the maximum loan reduces by a fixed amount for every extra pound earned, using a specific “divisor” that differs by living situation. It’s a straight-line taper, not a series of jumps.

For a student living away from home outside London, every £6.47 of household income above £25,000 cuts the loan by £1. So £10,000 of extra household income (taking it from £25,000 to £35,000) reduces the loan by £10,000 ÷ 6.47, or roughly £1,546, which lines up closely with the £1,545 difference in the table above between those two income levels.

The calculator above runs this exact formula for whichever living situation and income you enter, rather than rounding to the nearest table row.

Yes. Students who, or whose household, receive certain means-tested benefits get a meaningfully higher maximum loan and a gentler taper at lower income levels, though the two tapers converge at higher incomes.

The taper works in two stages here: a steeper reduction between £25,000 and £42,875, then the same gentler rate as standard households above that. By around £45,000 of household income, the benefits-eligible and standard loan amounts end up almost identical.

No, the Tuition Fee Loan isn’t means-tested at all. Every eligible full-time undergraduate gets the full amount, currently £9,790 for 2026/27, regardless of household income.

It’s paid straight to your university, not to you, and it exactly matches the tuition fee cap, so you never need to find the difference yourself. Combined with your Maintenance Loan, that’s your total borrowing for the year, which is exactly what the calculator above adds up.

For most students under 25, it’s your parents’ (or parent and step-parent’s) combined household income, not yours. If you count as an “independent student,” it’s your own income and your partner’s instead.

You’re generally assessed as independent if you’re 25 or older, married or in a civil partnership, have supported yourself financially for at least three years before your course starts, have no living parents, or are estranged from them. If none of those apply, your household income assessment uses your parents’ figures, even if you’re not living with them.

England’s tuition fee cap was frozen at £9,250 for eight straight years, from 2017/18 through 2024/25, before rising to £9,535 in 2025/26 and £9,790 in 2026/27. The government has already confirmed £10,050 for 2027/28.

• 2012/13: Fee cap set at £9,000, the level introduced with the major 2012 reforms.
• 2017/18: Raised to £9,250, in line with inflation at the time.
• 2017/18 to 2024/25: Frozen at £9,250 for eight consecutive years, despite the policy originally intending annual inflationary rises.
• 2025/26: First increase in eight years, to £9,535, alongside a rise in Maintenance Loan maximums.
• 2026/27: Raised again to £9,790.
• 2027/28: Already confirmed at £10,050, with fees and loans both now set to rise annually with inflation going forward.

According to analysis from the Institute for Fiscal Studies and figures reported by the BBC, if fees had simply tracked inflation every year since 2012 instead of being frozen, the 2025/26 fee would have reached roughly £14,661, well above what universities actually charged. The freeze meant the real value of tuition fee income fell substantially in the years it applied.

Here’s the part headline numbers miss: even with these recent cash increases, the IFS found that Maintenance Loan support for the poorest students is still around 10% lower in real terms than it was in 2020/21. Loans were meant to rise with forecast inflation each year, but when actual inflation ran higher than forecast for several years running, the numbers were never revisited to catch up. So while £14,135 sounds like a lot more than students got a few years ago, it buys noticeably less than the equivalent figure did back then.

No, not accurately. Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland each run their own separate student finance systems, called SAAS, Student Finance Wales, and Student Finance NI, with different fee levels, loan amounts, and rules from England’s system.

Scottish students studying in Scotland, for example, don’t pay tuition fees for their first degree at all, funded instead through the Student Awards Agency for Scotland. This calculator is built specifically for Student Finance England’s rules.

• UK Take-Home Pay Calculator, including student loan repayment deductions
• DTI Calculator, to check your debt-to-income ratio
• Paycheck Calculator USA, the US equivalent for take-home pay
• Tip Calculator, for splitting a bill and working out gratuity