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Student loan overpayments approach £80m – are you due a refund?
The Student Loans Company has issued more than 310,000 refunds this tax year
Thousands of graduates could be due a refund on their student loan repayments, with millions already given to those who’ve overpaid.
Since the start of this tax year, the Student Loans Company (SLC) has refunded more than 310,000 customers a combined total of nearly £80m, with each repayment averaging £250.
We've outlined four key scenarios in which you might be eligible – and how to claim.
How student loan repayments work
The Student Loans Company is a government-owned organisation that administers loans and grants to students in universities and colleges in the UK.
You may be able to borrow from the SLC to cover tuition fees, which will increase in England from £9,250 to £9,535 in September 2025, as well as living costs.
Currently, maximum tuition fees vary by region. They're up to £9,250 in Wales, up to £4,750 for Northern Irish students who live in the region (up to £9,250 for others), and free for most Scottish students studying in Scotland (up to £9,250 for students from the rest of the UK).
You only start repaying your student loan once you leave study and earn above a certain salary threshold, which depends on the plan you are on.
Repayments are collected through the PAYE tax system, meaning they are automatically deducted from your salary and sent to HMRC before you receive your pay cheque.
- Find out more: repaying your student loan explained
How many refunds have been paid out?
In some cases, blips in the system mean that graduates can overpay what they owe and end up being due a refund. New SLC data shows that almost £80m has been refunded to 310,800 customers so far this tax year.
This has already surpassed the total amount refunded in the 2023-24 tax year.
| Tax year | Total refunded | Number of customers refunded | Average refunded |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-2025 (so far) | £78.9m | 310,800 | £250 |
| 2023-2024 | £61.1m | 216,300 | £280 |
Note: Refunds made in the above tax years could relate to an over-repayment made in any previous tax year.
Four reasons you may be owed a refund
There are four scenarios in which you may be eligible for a refund. Here we explain what they are and how many SLC customers could be owed refunds.
1 You didn't reach the earnings threshold to repay
Student loan repayments are triggered once your earnings exceed a set threshold each weekly or monthly pay period. For graduates on Plan 2, for example, the 2023-24 weekly threshold was £524. Those on this plan will have been charged 9% on everything above this threshold.
However, there is also an annual threshold (£27,295 in 2023-24 for graduates on Plan 2). Although payments may be taken correctly in each weekly or monthly pay period, your annual income may still fall below the yearly threshold. For example, it may be that you got a bonus one month which pushed you over the monthly threshold. Or perhaps you received a pay rise halfway through the tax year that triggered repayments being taken, but your annual income was still below the threshold.
Regardless of monthly pay thresholds, if your total annual income is below the yearly threshold, you can request a refund from the SLC based on end-of-year earnings data from HMRC.
In the 2023-2024 tax year, the SLC refunded £26.5 million to 102,200 customers eligible for a below-threshold refund.
Our table sets out the other 2023-24 thresholds to be aware of if you took out a loan on a different plan. You can find out the 2024-2025 repayment thresholds on the government website.
| Plan | Who's on this plan | 2023-2024 weekly threshold | 2023-24 monthly threshold | 2023-24 yearly threshold |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Loans before academic year 2012-13 in England and Wales, plus all Northern Ireland loans | £423 | £1,834 | £22,015 |
| 2 | Most loans from academic year 2012-13 in England and Wales (excluding Plans 3, 4 and 5) | £524 | £2,274 | £27,295 |
| 3 (also known as postgraduate plan) | All postgraduate loans in England and Wales (Master’s and Doctoral) | £403 | £1,750 | £21,000 |
| 4 | All Scotland loans | £531 | £2,305 | £27,660 |
| 5 | Loans from academic year 2023-24 (England only) | £480 | £2,083 | £25,000 |
If a customer is repaying a Plan 1, Plan 2 and Plan 4 loan, they can only get a refund if their income was less than the Plan 1 repayment threshold. If a customer is replaying a Plan 1 and/or Plan 2 and a Plan 3 loan, they may be eligible for a below threshold refund for one but not the other, dependent on their earnings.
- Find out more: 5 things graduate need to know about student loans
2 You were put on the wrong repayment plan
You can get a refund if your employer puts you on the wrong plan – for example, if you started university from the 2012-13 academic year and should be on Plan 2, but your employer has marked you as Plan 1.
You can check which plan you should be on by signing into your online account with the SLC and downloading your ‘active plan type letter’.
Then ask your employer which plan it has you on. If it is different from that in your SLC account, ask your employer to correct this to ensure the correct deductions are taken going forward.
The latest figures from SLC shows that around 20,500* customers were on the wrong repayment plan in 2023-24.
- Find out more: student loan warning as scammers hijack payments
3 You started paying it back too early
Subject to meeting the earnings thresholds, you’ll usually begin repaying your student loan in the April after you leave your course. If you're studying part time or on a long Postgraduate Doctoral course, you'll be liable to start repaying four years after starting the course. This is called your Statutory Payment Due Date (SRDD).
If any repayments are taken before your SRDD, you'll be eligible for a refund.
The latest figures from the SLC Shows that around 37,700* customers had loan repayments taken before they were due to start repayments in 2023-24.
4 You've paid off your loan in full
HMRC will tell your employer to stop taking repayments from your salary when you have repaid your loan in full, but it can take around four weeks for salary deductions to stop. This delay may lead to overpayments.
You can avoid paying more than you owe by changing your payments to direct debit in the final year of your repayments. Provided that you keep your contact details up to date in your online account, the SLC will contact you to let you know how to set this up. If you don't hear from it by around a year before your repayments are due to end, contact it to ask.
The latest figures from the SLC show that 59,251 customers had deductions taken after their loans were fully paid in 2023-24.
How to claim a refund
The method for claiming a refund depends on the reason for your overpayment. Where refunds are due, they are paid directly into your bank account.
- Refunds for below-threshold payments
If you think you’re owed a refund for below-threshold repayments, you can now request it directly through your SLC online account. Since this service launched in May this year, the SLC has contacted 653,000 eligible customers, with 213,000 requesting refunds online. As of the end of September it had refunded £61.6 million to 248,600 customers with an average refund value being £250.
The SLC plans to notify eligible customers annually if they are owed a refund from the previous tax year. Reclaiming below-threshold overpayments is optional; if you want, you can leave the overpayment in place to reduce your loan balance.
- Refunds for payments taken after loan is paid off
For those who have fully repaid their loan but still had payments taken from their payslip, the SLC will automatically refund you.
- Refunds for other types of overpayment
If you’re owed a refund due to being placed on the wrong repayment plan or if payments were taken too early, you’ll need to contact the SLC directly.
To get your refund processed, call the SLC at 0300 100 0611 (for Wales, 0300 100 0370; from overseas, +44 141 243 3660).
*As customers can have multiple loans across multiple plan types, the number of customers who overpaid could include some duplicate customers.
