Martin Lewis is urging Britons to check if they could be due a refund from the student loan company as many are thought to have overpaid.
The financial journalist and Money Saving Expert founder issued the alert during last night’s Money Show, explaining that more than one million people paid more than they should have for their loans during the 2022/23 tax year.
He listed four main reasons people may have overpaid, the first being that many were put on the wrong payment plan by their employers.
One viewer who found themselves in this position managed to recoup £1,303.
Another reason some overpaid was that they were asked to start repaying the loan before reaching the salary threshold to do so.
Different salary thresholds depend on which student loan plan a person is on. For example, those who are on Plan 1 have to start paying when they reach an annual salary of £22,015, while those on Plan 2 have to start paying when they reach an annual salary of £27,295.
Moving onto the third reason, some people were still having money deducted from their pay despite having fully repaid the loan. Meanwhile, others started repaying too early. People don’t have to start paying their student loans until the April after they graduate, however, some people were paying before.
Mr Lewis then stressed that people who have overpaid shouldn’t leave the money where it is because “student loans don’t work like normal loans”.
He described it as a “graduate tax” and said the refund is “absolute cash in your pocket”.
He told viewers: “There’s no limit on how far back you can reclaim student loan overpayments, so there are likely millions of people who are owed money because it’s typically one million a year and this has been going on a long time.”
This announcement followed Mr Lewis’s recent Freedom of Information (FOI) request into the overpayments, which found hundreds of thousands of students were on the wrong plans.
Anyone who thinks they may have overpaid their student loan can read the full guide on the Money Saving Expert (MSE) website here.
In a video posted in October, Mr Lewis said: “If possible, gather your old payslips, your payroll number and a PAYE reference number, and you’ll have those when you get in touch either online or phone the SLC – (they would prefer it to be online – and you just tell them that you think you overpaid.”
If these details aren’t readily available, Mr Lewis suggested getting in touch with the student loan company regardless but warned that it will slow the refund process down.
People who think they may have overpaid their student loan can phone SAAS on 0300 100 0609, the Student Loans Company on 0300 100 0611, or visit the GOV.UK website here.
The Martin Lewis Money Show airs on ITV on Tuesdays at 8pm.