Martin Lewis gives exact date your student loan debt will be wiped out

Martin Lewis has revealed the exact date your student loan debt will be wiped out and you'll no longer be asked to make contributions towards it.

And it's no surprise that the date differs for lots of us, given that there are varying plans depending on when you started university. So it's a little bit more complicated than you might be thinking.

The vast majority of going to uni will take out student loans to cover their course fees, with other maintenance loans also taken to help cover general living costs.

It means that when graduating, students enter the world of work with thousands of pounds of debt to their name. And that debt has to be repaid.

Once in work and earning over a specific amount - again, this alters depending on which plan you're on -, you will start paying back the cash that helped get you through university. It's effectively a progressive graduate tax, with the amount you pay dependent on what you earn.

But you won't be doing it forever, with the debt wiped out after specific periods of time.

What has Martin Lewis said about student loans?

Martin Lewis, who to many is the United Kingdom's top financial guru, took to X (formerly Twitter) earlier this year to speak about the issue. And with students having just started university, or returning for another year, the timing to revisit his advice couldn't be more appropriate.

"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'," Lewis posted over the summer.

"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."

Different end dates depending on where you studied and when

Lewis explains that your student loan debt will be wiped in relation to where in the UK you studied, as well as when you began your degree.

For every student who has started studying in England since September 2023, Lewis states that your loan will be 'wiped 40 years after the April after you left university'.

It's different for those who studied between 2012 and 2022. If that is you, your debt will be wiped after 30 years. This is also the same for Welsh students since 2012 and those studying in Scotland from 2007.

If you chose to study in Northern Ireland after 2012, your loan will be wiped after 25 years.

When will your UK student loan be wiped – a quick video briefing

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— Martin Lewis (@MartinSLewis) July 18, 2024

For the older graduates among us - those who went to university in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland between 1998 and 2005 -, your loan doesn't end after a certain period of time. Instead, it ends once you hit the age of 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," Lewis added.

“If you started between 2006 and 2011 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, it’s 25 years after the April after you left university.”