Revise calculation of student loan repayments for overseas graduates
Calculate the monthly repayment amount for overseas graduates according to post-tax rather than pre-tax income. (I.e. scale monthly repayments to match those of UK residents with the same take-home pay.) This would prevent the effective burden of repayment from being higher in high tax countries.
Signatures
55
signatures
Government response threshold (10,000) · 55/10,000
Debate threshold (100,000) · 55/100,000
- 08 APR 2026Petition opened for signaturesCreated by Kathryn Williams
Background
Repayments are calculated as 9% gross income over a threshold.
Different tax systems mean that graduates living abroad can face higher monthly repayments relative to their take-home pay than their UK counterparts.
For example, a UK resident with a Plan 1 loan earning £40,000 p.a. would pay £639 tax/NI and £104 to student finance, taking home £2589 per month.
For the same salary, a graduate in Denmark would pay £1095 in tax, take home £2236, and still have to pay £104 to student finance.