How to check your student loan balance
Last checked: · Forecast repayments from your balance
Check your balance through GOV.UK
Use the official Student Loans Company (SLC) repayment account to check how much you owe. You can also see repayments, interest already applied and your repayment plan. This calculator is independent of SLC; it does not connect to your account or retrieve your balance.
Open GOV.UK: manage your student loan balance
- Open the GOV.UK page above and choose Start now to reach the official sign-in service.
- Sign in there with your customer reference number or email address, password and secret answer.
- Note the balance for each loan, the balance or statement date, and which repayment plan applies.
Enter account credentials only on the official service. You do not need to give this site your customer reference number, password or secret answer. If you cannot sign in, GOV.UK explains how to reset your details or contact SLC.
Use the balance in your repayment forecast
After your course has finished, open the student loan calculator and choose Enter student loan balance. This starts from the amount you enter, rather than estimating debt from tuition and maintenance borrowing.
- Enter the balance for your selected loan in Current Student Debt Total.
- Choose its month in Balance as at. The calculator uses the current calendar year shown in your result; it does not offer a separate balance-year or day field.
- Enter your actual Course Start Year and Course Duration, and check Student Loan Plan. Course dates still matter for the repayment and write-off timetable.
- Enter your annual gross salary, review the growth and interest assumptions, then choose Calculate.
Use a balance dated in the current calendar year. An older statement cannot be given its original year in this form; get a newer balance from your account before forecasting. The model starts at the selected month and groups results into April–March repayment years. It does not reproduce the exact day of a statement or SLC's daily postings.
If you are still studying, choose I don't know my balance and use the tuition and maintenance inputs to estimate course borrowing. Those results are a projection, rather than your official account balance.
Keep undergraduate and Postgraduate Loans separate
If you have both, enter only your undergraduate balance in Current Student Debt Total. Select your undergraduate plan, tick I also have a Postgraduate Loan, then enter the separate amount in Current Postgraduate Loan Balance with its own course start year and duration. Use balances from the same month and year: both loans share the Balance as at month.
Do not add the two balances into one input. They have separate repayment thresholds, interest rates and write-off dates. If you only have a Postgraduate Loan, choose Postgraduate Loan as the main plan and enter that balance in the main debt field.
This form supports one main repayment plan plus a separate Postgraduate Loan. If your account shows several undergraduate plans, this calculator cannot forecast all of them together. Adding the balances under one plan does not model their different rules, and separate forecasts are not a combined repayment schedule.
Why a balance is different from a forecast
Your account records the loan and transactions SLC holds. A forecast estimates future repayments, interest and possible write-off using your salary and assumptions. Future pay and rules can change, so the result is not an account statement or a settlement quote.
Repayments normally depend on income above your plan's threshold, rather than a fixed percentage of the outstanding balance. A larger balance therefore does not automatically mean a larger payslip deduction. See GOV.UK: what you pay and our payslip guide.
If a recent repayment or the balance looks wrong, check your account's transaction history and ask SLC to confirm it before making a final repayment. Changing a forecast cannot correct your official account.
What to check next
- Find your student loan plan, then confirm it in the official repayment account.
- Understand student loan interest and why a balance can rise while you repay.
- Check write-off rules before treating the full balance as the amount you will eventually repay.
- Compare overpayment outcomes before choosing to make an extra payment.
Official sources: GOV.UK account guidance and GOV.UK repayment-plan guidance.