Ministers are examining ways to ease the burden of student loans after weeks of pressure over a policy pulling more people into repayments, the Guardian understands.

The Treasury and the Department for Education are reviewing different options to offer relief to those with plan 2 student loans, which often leave graduates in England and Wales paying tens of thousands more than the original loan amount.

The Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, has said her party would change the rate of inflation that applies to student loan repayments.

Labour MPs have lobbied the government to instead think again about a freeze on the student loan repayment threshold – which will be kept at £29,385 for three years until 2030 and is likely to cause graduate repayments to go up by up to £300 a year.