Martin Lewis explains exactly when all your student loan debts will be cancelled

Money expert Martin Lewis has set out exactly when all your student loan debts will be cancelled - no matter how much you've borrowed.

Eyewatering student loan debts in excess of £50,000 or even £60,000 are the norm now for recent graduates following years of tuition fee rises. But in reality, millions of people will never repay their student loans, which aren't really loans but are set up more like a 9% graduate tax, and they will automatically be 'wiped off' in a certain timeframe.

Although some people will clear them if they earn enough to pay down the interest and the balance before the debt is automatically chalked off, others will never repay anything for their university education, despite taking out the loans.

This week, as freshers take up new uni places up and down the country, money expert Martin Lewis explained, via his MSE site, how the student loan system works and when the debt is cancelled - though it can get complicated given that the system has been changed every few years for the last two decades.

Writing on Money Saving Expert, he said: "Students don't need to pay the university or other higher education institutions directly. Tuition fees, which will be up to £9,535 for new starters this year, are paid for you by the Student Loans Company. Over a three year course, the combined loan for tuition and maintenance can be over £60,000, but don't get overly hung up on that, as what counts is what you repay..."

As Martin explained, you begin repaying your student loan the April after you leave university. So if you're just starting a normal three year course now, it'll be April 2029.

The threshold for repayment is £25,000 a year, so if you earn less than that, you won't have to repay anything until your annual salary rises above that threshold (although interest keeps being added to the debt even if you aren't eligible to repay yet).

When you do cross the threshold, you repay 9% of everything above the threshold. So for example, if you earned £100,000 (just for easy maths), you'd pay 9% of £75,000, because you don't pay anything on the first £25,000.

But Martin confirmed exactly when the student loan debt is cancelled: for students starting university this year, the loan is wiped off after 40 years, even if you've never paid any of it back.

He added: "The loan is wiped after 40 years whether you've paid a penny or not. This means many people will be repaying their student loans for most of their working lives."