Maintenance loans will be available to all irrespective of income and graduates will not make a contribution towards repaying their tuition costs until they are earning at least £21,000. The repayment will be on 9% of income earnings above £21,000 with all outstanding repayments being written off after 30 years.
A real rate of interest will be charged on loan repayments but with a progressive taper. For graduates earning below £21,000 there will be no real rate of interest applied to their loan. For graduates earning between £21,000 and £41,000, a real rate of interest will start to be charged, reaching a maximum of RPI plus 3%.