Most UK dentists qualify with substantial student debt, often a five-figure or low six-figure balance after five years of dental school plus any foundation or postgraduate study. How your repayments are actually calculated matters for planning, because the figure changes with your plan, your total income for the year, and whether that income reaches you through PAYE or through Self Assessment. This guide sets out the current 2026/27 thresholds, the calculation for an employed dentist versus a self-employed associate, what happens with multiple income sources or a high-earning year, and when the loan is finally written off.
Which plan you are on, and the 2026/27 thresholds
The plan is set by when and where you started your course, not by how much you owe. You repay a fixed percentage of income above a threshold, and that threshold is reviewed every April, so the year matters. The figures below are the thresholds and rates that apply for the 2026/27 tax year, taken from the GOV.UK student loan deduction tables and the official terms and conditions.
| Plan | Who is on it | 2026/27 annual threshold | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plan 1 | Started before 1 September 2012 (England and Wales) | £26,900 | 9% |
| Plan 2 | Started 1 September 2012 to 31 July 2023 (England and Wales) | £29,385 | 9% |
| Plan 4 | Scottish students | £33,795 | 9% |
| Plan 5 | Course started on or after 1 August 2023 (England) | £25,000 | 9% |
| Postgraduate Loan | Master's or doctoral loan | £21,000 | 6% |
Three points decide most dentists' situation. First, the rate is 9% of income above the threshold on every undergraduate plan, and 6% on the postgraduate loan. Second, the postgraduate loan runs alongside an undergraduate plan, so a dentist with both pays two separate deductions on the same income. Third, you only repay on income above the threshold, so a quieter year automatically reduces what you pay, and a year below the threshold means nothing is due at all.
Most dentists currently in practice are on Plan 2, though the cohort qualifying from courses that began on or after 1 August 2023 will be on Plan 5. Dentists who studied in Scotland are on Plan 4. If you are unsure, your annual statement from the Student Loans Company confirms the plan, and getting it right is the single most important step in any calculation.
How the calculation works for an employed dentist (PAYE)
If you are a salaried or PAYE dentist, for example during foundation training or in a salaried community or hospital post, your employer deducts the student loan through payroll alongside income tax and National Insurance. The deduction is worked out on each pay period against the matching slice of the threshold, not on your annual income in one go, which is why it appears as a steady amount each month.
Take a Plan 2 dentist earning £45,000 in 2026/27. Across the year the calculation is:
- Income above threshold: £45,000 minus £29,385 equals £15,615
- Annual repayment: £15,615 times 9% equals £1,405
- Roughly £117 a month through payroll
The PAYE route is the simplest case because the deduction is automatic and roughly self-correcting across the year. The complication arises when PAYE is not the whole picture, which for many associates it is not.
How it works for a self-employed dentist (Self Assessment)
Most associates and locums are self-employed (status turns on the substance of the arrangement, not the label on the contract). A self-employed dentist does not have a payroll deduction. Instead, the student loan repayment is calculated on the tax return and collected through Self Assessment, based on total income for the year. The same plan rate applies, so the headline arithmetic is identical, but the timing and the base are different.
Take a self-employed Plan 2 associate with £70,000 of taxable income for 2026/27:
- Income above threshold: £70,000 minus £29,385 equals £40,615
- Annual repayment: £40,615 times 9% equals £3,655
That £3,655 is added to the income tax and Class 4 National Insurance on the same return. Two practical consequences follow. First, it lands as a single annual figure rather than twelve small deductions, so it needs setting aside through the year rather than being quietly handled by payroll. Second, the student loan element is calculated on the balancing figure for the year and is not itself spread across payments on account in the way the income tax is, so the cash-flow shape is different again. Building this into the same discipline you use for the rest of your tax bill avoids the unwelcome surprise. Our guide to payments on account for dentists covers how the wider Self Assessment payment timetable works.
A worked example with both loans running
Many dentists hold both an undergraduate plan and a postgraduate loan. Suppose a self-employed associate on Plan 2 with a postgraduate loan has £70,000 of income in 2026/27. The two run independently:
| Loan | Threshold | Income above threshold | Rate | Annual repayment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plan 2 | £29,385 | £40,615 | 9% | £3,655 |
| Postgraduate | £21,000 | £49,000 | 6% | £2,940 |
| Combined | £6,595 |
The two thresholds are applied separately to the same income, and the two repayments simply add together. At this income level the combined student loan deduction sits on top of income tax and National Insurance, which is why dentists carrying both loans should treat the student loan as a distinct line in their annual budgeting rather than rounding it into the tax estimate.
Multiple income sources and a high-earning year
A common dental pattern is several income streams at once, for example an associate also doing salaried sessions, or a practice owner drawing from the business as well as taking PAYE work. The treatment depends on the mix.
Where you have multiple PAYE employments, each employer applies the threshold separately to the pay it processes. If neither job alone is far above the threshold, the deductions can be small, yet your combined income may be well over it. The shortfall is picked up through Self Assessment, where the calculation runs on your total income. The same reconciliation happens where you have a mix of PAYE and self-employed income: the return totals everything, applies the threshold once to the combined figure, and credits the student loan already deducted through PAYE, leaving a balancing amount to pay (or, occasionally, a small overpayment to resolve).
A high-earning year, for example a strong private year or a one-off uplift, increases the repayment in direct proportion, because 9% (or 6%) applies to every extra pound above the threshold with no upper cap. This is worth anticipating in cash-flow terms, but it does not change the principle that you only ever repay a percentage of income above the threshold.
Does pension or expense planning change the figure?
The honest answer is "sometimes, and it depends how", which is more nuanced than the common shortcut that "pension contributions cut your student loan". For an employed dentist, only a workplace pension run on a net-pay or salary-sacrifice basis reduces the pay figure used for the student loan deduction. A relief-at-source personal pension (where you pay from net pay and the provider reclaims basic-rate relief) does not reduce the PAYE student loan deduction.
For a self-employed dentist, the student loan is calculated on taxable profit (plus other income). Allowable business expenses reduce that profit and therefore the base, in the same way they reduce income tax. A personal pension contribution, however, generally does not reduce the income figure used for the Self Assessment student loan calculation, even though it attracts income tax relief. The position is different again for an incorporated dentist, where an employer pension contribution from the company reduces company profit and the salary on which any PAYE deduction is based. The detail matters, so treat any "pension cuts my student loan" claim with care and check it against your own structure. Our note on pension tax relief for dentists sets out how the contribution routes differ.
Interest and when the loan is written off
Interest accrues throughout, and the rules differ by plan. Broadly, undergraduate loan interest is linked to inflation (and, for some plans, to income while you are repaying), while the postgraduate loan carries its own rate. Because interest can exceed repayments at lower incomes, a balance can grow rather than shrink for a period, which is central to the early-repayment question below.
Each plan also has a write-off point, after which any remaining balance is cancelled:
| Plan | Typical write-off |
|---|---|
| Plan 1 | 25 years after you were first due to repay |
| Plan 2 | 30 years after the April you were first due to repay |
| Plan 4 | Age-based or 30 years, depending on when taken |
| Plan 5 | 40 years after you were first due to repay |
| Postgraduate Loan | 30 years after you were first due to repay |
The write-off matters to the early-repayment decision. If you are very likely to clear the balance well before the write-off date and interest is high, voluntary overpayment can save interest overall. If you may never repay the full amount before it is cancelled, overpaying simply hands money to a debt that would have been written off, and the income-contingent design (repayments fall when income falls, and stop entirely below the threshold) carries genuine insurance value. For most dentists the answer turns on projected lifetime earnings, the current interest rate, and what else the money could do, so it is worth modelling rather than deciding on instinct.
Getting the calculation right
The mechanics are straightforward once the plan and the income base are correct: a fixed percentage of income above the current threshold, deducted through payroll if you are employed or collected through Self Assessment if you are self-employed, with the tax return reconciling everything against total income. The errors that cost dentists money are upstream of the arithmetic. Using the wrong plan or a stale threshold, forgetting that a postgraduate loan runs alongside, overlooking that several PAYE jobs each apply the threshold separately, or assuming a pension contribution reduces the figure when it does not.
If you also complete the rest of your return yourself, our step-by-step Self Assessment guide for associates and the wider associate dentist tax guide set the student loan in context alongside income tax and National Insurance. Where the position is genuinely complex, for example mixed PAYE and self-employed income, two loans running at once, or an incorporated structure, it is worth getting the calculation checked. If you would like that, our dental accounting specialists work with dentists on exactly these situations.