University graduates all over the UK are being urged to check if they are due for a refund on their student loan repayments. This comes from a campaign group after it was revealed that almost £200 million had been overpaid last year.
Save the Student’s comments came following the revelation that hundreds of thousands of people who are currently paying off their loans are entitled to a share of £184 million in refunds. To check if you are owed a refund, on your student loan, log on to the government’s Student Loan Company (SLC) portal. Refunds could range from tens of pounds to over £1,000.
There are a number of reasons for people to be entitled to a refund.
The main one is that repayments were taken from people who were not earning the annual threshold at which point repayments should automatically begin. This can happen if you earn above the monthly threshold due to extra shifts, a new job, or a bonus, triggering the repayments, despite annual earnings being below the yearly threshold.
Since May, those who fall into this category have been able to use a new service by the SLC to request refunds online. In the first six months of the service, 418,000 have done so.
Other reasons could be that former students are being charged repayments before they are required to pay, generally in the April after they finish studying. Some people may have been put on the wrong payment plan by their employer while others could have continued to make repayments after their loan has been paid off in full.
Any overpaid money will not be counted towards the full repayment of the loan. This could save many graduates money on interest in the long term.
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