I've been doing some student loan thinking recently, just to check where I am.

The interest rates, contrary to my belief up to now, is set on RPI inflation, not base rate. Thats not the government's rate of 3%, but the actual rate of 4.8%, which as you can see, is double what it was the year before, but half of what it was in 1990.

HMRC have a very useful page detailing how the repayments are made. Basically, you have 9% of everything above £1,250 a month taken from your pay packet. That means if you're earning £18,000 a year, as in the HMRC example you'll be paying back £22 a month.

My interest payments are currently running at more than twice that per month.