<P> † On 4 December 2008 the Bank of England base rate was cut to 2% pa . As the ICR Plan 1 interest rate can never be more than 1% above the Bank of England base rate, the loan interest rate was cut to 3% . The rate was cut again for the same reasons in January, February, and March 2009 . </P> <P> ‡ The Teaching and Higher Education Act 1998 allows the government to charge - or indeed not to charge - compound interest for income contingent loans . If interest is to be charged by virtue of regulations, the rate must not exceed that needed to maintain the value of the loans in real terms (by reference to RPI) and must not at any time exceed the rate for low - interest loans (bank base rate + 1%). The Education Act 2011 allows post-2012 student loans to accrue interest up to market rates, again by virtue of regulations . In 2009 the government opted not to charge interest when the RPI rate was below zero in order to avoid applying a negative rate of interest . No such option applies to the pre-1998 mortgage - style loans, and the negative rate of interest was indeed applied to those loans . </P> <P> + Amending regulations introduced in 2011 provided for the indexation of the ICR Plan 1 repayment threshold by the prior year's March RPI at the start of every tax year up to and including April 2015, to start from April 2012 . Amending regulations 2014 removed the time - limit to the annual threshold adjustments to ensure that the threshold maintains its real value for the lifetime of the loans . </P> <P> Post-1998 ICR Plan 1 loans were not yet open for repayment . The first date for repayment on ICR Plan 1 was 6 April 2000 . </P>

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