Published: 28/10/2025 · Last Updated: 28/10/2025

Advanced Learner Loan bulletin - October 2025

October performance management review point

The Department for Education (DfE) will notify providers of the outcome of the October review point the week starting 10 November.

If your loan facility is increasing, you will receive an updated contract. You must digitally sign this before DfE will tell us about the increase. Please do this as soon as possible. If you return this by the stated deadline, you’ll see an increase on LP Portal on 10 December. You can find further details in the Advanced Learner Loan funding rules guidance.

November drawdown date

Active learners will re-populate on your attendance worklist from 1 November. We'll remind you of this at the beginning of the month.

You'll need to review your attendance worklist and submit all outstanding attendance confirmations by the drawdown date — Thursday 13 November.

Please also make sure to deal with any outstanding attendance confirmations and submit initial attendances for returning learners by the drawdown date. You should also check your Change of Circumstance worklist and clear this ahead of the drawdown date.

Interest and repayment threshold

The Plan 5 student loan threshold for individuals starting their courses on or after August 1 2023, is £25,000 per year (£2,083 per month or £480 per week). Repayments are calculated at 9% of income earned above this threshold.

Interest rates are generally set on 1 September each year, using the Retail Prices Index (RPI) of the previous March. So, from 1 September 2025 until 31 August 2026, the interest rate for Plan 5 loans will be 3.2%.

Change of Circumstance notifications

If you're unable to establish the status of returning learners on the attendance worklist, make sure that you coordinate with the relevant academic staff to suspend or withdraw them.

It's important to meet the service standards, as outlined below:

70% of suspensions and withdrawals submitted within 60 days of notification
95% of suspensions and withdrawals submitted within 90 days of notification

If you submit information late or inaccurately, this could mean that:

you breach your obligation to adhere to the service standards
you limit or even jeopardise your ALL funding contract (meaning no recommendation for growth awards)
there could be an incorrect fee payment made requiring recovery
learner loan liability and interest will be incorrect

You can find guidance on CoC notifications on the LP Services website.

If you have any concerns about meeting the service standards and need support from your Account Manager, please get in touch. We can also offer face-to-face or online workshops to help your academic staff understand the importance of their role. This will also ensure that your organisation is compliant. Sessions can be standalone or built into a staff development day.

Partners Support Desk

Our Partners Support Desk is here to help you with any day to day operational questions about individual learners, application processing, payments and system issues.

You can contact the support desk on 0300 100 0643 or by emailing lpservices@slc.co.uk.