Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the number of Plan 2 student loan borrowers who will begin making repayments as a result of the freeze to the Plan 2 repayment threshold.

The department currently forecasts around 240,000 additional English Plan 2 loans (4.8% of all English Plan 2 loans for which borrowers are eligible to make repayments) will see a repayment in financial year 2030/31 given the announced threshold freeze when compared to a scenario with inflationary increases to thresholds. These are current estimates and are subject to change given updates to economic forecasts and other key forecast inputs.

The department will release an equalities impact assessment, including the impact on the number of borrowers forecast to make obligatory repayments, alongside other borrower impacts.