Planning tool · England · 2026/27 rates

LLE calculator: estimate your remaining Tuition Fee Loan balance

Use current Department for Education rules to make a planning estimate of how previous publicly funded study could reduce the standard £39,160 Lifelong Learning Entitlement.

Uses current DfE figures No sign-up required Not an SFE decision

This is a planning estimate, not an eligibility decision.

Student Finance England decides your actual balance and eligibility. Additional entitlement for priority subjects, longer courses, repeat study and compelling personal reasons is not calculated here.

Tuition support for courses started from September 2012

For courses that began on or after 1 September 2012, enter applicable government-funded tuition support actually paid, excluding Maintenance Loans and your own payments. Do not enter postgraduate Master’s or Doctoral Loans, other postgraduate tuition loans or grants from Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland, Higher Education Short Course Loans, NHS or other healthcare bursaries, social work bursaries or apprenticeship-funded tuition. A PGCE funded through undergraduate student finance should still be entered. Enter SAAS tuition-fee payments for study at a Scottish provider in section 2 instead; do not count the same study twice. If SFE has accepted that a period was affected by compelling personal reasons, exclude that part. Transfers, suspensions, end-on courses and excluded Scottish postgraduate funding can affect the category: if unsure, select the unsupported-history box below.

2012/13 to 2024/25 tuition support Tuition Fee Loans or grants actually paid

2025/26 tuition support Tuition Fee Loans or grants actually paid

2026/27 tuition support Tuition Fee Loans or grants actually paid

Advanced Learner Loan amount Only applicable level 4, 5 or 6 study; exclude cancelled amounts and any period SFE accepts as affected by compelling personal reasons

Pre-September 2012 UK study or SAAS-funded study

Use these fields for applicable publicly funded courses begun before 1 September 2012 without private tuition contributions, or relevant SAAS-funded study at a Scottish provider. In DfE’s incomplete-study example, a learner who completed one year and started a second has two years deducted. Confirm how a partial year applies to your own history with SFE. Do not count the same year under more than one study type; a year combining full-time and part-time study uses the part-time rate. Exclude a period only if SFE has accepted that it was affected by compelling personal reasons. Courses begun from September 1998 to August 2012 with private tuition contributions have different deductions and are not estimated here. If a placement or overseas year does not clearly fit the official definition, select the unsupported-history box.

Full-time years £9,790 deduction per year Part-time years £4,895 deduction per year Work-placement years £1,955 deduction per year Study-abroad, Erasmus or Turing years £1,465 deduction per year

Other applicable public study support

The modular acceleration programme has one fixed deduction, regardless of how many eligible modules you took.

I studied through the modular acceleration programme Adds one £2,447.50 deduction. My history includes a course begun from September 1998 to August 2012 with private tuition contributions, or I am unsure which category appliesThis calculator cannot estimate that history. Check your official balance with SFE.

How the estimate works

What this calculator includes

Previous study: current-system rules and the LLE boundary

Post-2012 tuition support

Previous tuition support is uplifted to the equivalent 2026/27 fee level. The calculator uses the 2026 regulations’ reference amounts: £9,250 for 2012/13 to 2024/25, £9,535 for 2025/26 and £9,790 for 2026/27. The regulations disregard fractions of a penny but do not specify whether this applies to each payment, each year of study or each reference band. This estimate applies it once to each band total, which can make the estimated deduction a few pence higher than a year-by-year calculation. Your official SFE balance may differ.

Pre-2012 and SAAS study

For the supported historic and SAAS categories, it applies fixed deductions of £9,790 full-time, £4,895 part-time, £1,955 work placement and £1,465 study abroad, Erasmus or Turing mobility per year. It does not estimate the reduced-deduction category for pre-September 2012 courses with private tuition contributions.

What it deliberately excludes

Maintenance support, course-specific additional entitlement, priority subjects, longer-course entitlement, repeat-study entitlement and individual residency/eligibility decisions.

Compelling personal reasons need a separate assessment. This planning estimate does not decide individual cases.

Official sources

Looking at living-cost funding for an existing-system course? Use the 2026/27 Maintenance Loan estimator. It checks the course start date before calculating.

DfE guidance and regulation 23 were rechecked on 15 October 2026. The calculator is a planning estimate; SFE determines your official balance.