Have you overpaid your student loan?

New data has revealed that hundreds of thousands of graduates made unnecessary Student Loan repayments in the 2021/22 financial year, with the vast majority yet to claim a refund

The stats, secured via a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the Student Loans Company (SLC) and published by Save the Student, show that over 850,000 graduates have made unnecessary repayments in recent years for a variety of reasons.

The findings, detail how in 2021/22 856,475 graduates overpaid on their loan despite earning below the repayment threshold, with the total value of these mistaken payments exceeding £100million.

However, of the 850,000 graduates owed a refund, just 2% have claimed the money back.

The figures also show that in 2020/21:

• 39,000 graduates accidentally made early repayments
• 50,000 continued to make repayments after clearing their balance
• 200,000 repaid their Student Loans under the wrong plan type.

Notably, incidents of each of the four ways in which a loan repayment can be incorrectly taken were more common in 2021/22 than in the previous year.

Graduates who continue to repay their loan after clearing the balance are usually contacted by the Student Loans Company or automatically issued a refund. However, the same generally isn't true for those who overpay for other reasons.

To check if you're owed a refund go through old payslips and compare them to the repayment rules and thresholds for the corresponding year. If this isn't possible, call the Student Loans Company to check.

'I'd urge all graduates to check if they're owed hundreds of pounds in the form of a Student Loan repayment refund,' says Tom Allingham, Save the Student's student money expert.

'In the case of graduates repaying their Student Loans despite earning below the threshold, this tends to be because their salary has varied throughout the year.

Whatever the reason, if you believe you may have made incorrect Student Loan repayments, it's usually worth claiming a refund.'

Please be aware that the data does not include graduates who made voluntary repayments, which are non-refundable.

The Student Loans Company have confirmed that each financial year's data is not available until at least 12 months later. Hence, 2021/22 is the most recent year of data available. They also confirmed that the reported number of graduates claiming a refund often appears to exceed the number owed one because the two figures are from slightly different data sources, both of which are live and constantly changing.

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