University graduates across the UK are being urged by a campaign group to check whether they are due a refund on their student loan repayment after it was revealed that nearly £200m was overpaid last year.
Save the Student’s comments come after figures were published which show that hundreds of thousands of people currently paying off their loans are eligible for a share of £184m in refunds.
It is easy to check whether a refund is owed by logging on to the government’s Student Loan Company portal, where individual refunds could range from tens of pounds to more than £1,000.
Tom Allingham from Save the Student said for many getting a refund could make a world of difference.
Charlotte Gill is one such former student who was eligible for a refund on her loan payments, to the tune of £68.
She said it did not make a huge difference “but every little helps when you are a student”.
“At the end of the day, it’s your money, it’s not the government’s money, so if you’ve got any entitlement to a refund then absolutely take it,” she said.
Martin De’Ath received £396 in his refund and says the substantial payment made him question how he could have used it in the 10 months he was without it.
“I was definitely pleased to get it back at least,” he said.
There are four reasons people may be eligible for refunds.
The main reason, behind £146m of the total, is that repayments were taken from people despite them not earning above the annual threshold at which point repayments automatically kick in.
This can happen when someone earns above the monthly threshold which triggers the beginning of loan repayments, due to things like to taking extra shifts, getting a new job or receiving a bonus, but their annual earnings might still fall below the yearly threshold.
Since May, those who fall into this category have been able to use a new service offered by the SLC to request refunds online. In the first six months of the service, 418,000 people have done so.
Other reasons may be that former students are charged repayments before they are required to pay, which is generally in the April after they finish studying.
Some people may have been put on the wrong payment plans by their employer, while others may have continued making payments after their loan had been paid off in full.
Any money overpaid does count towards the full repayment of the loan, and may save graduates money in the long run on interest.
However, as Mr Allingham said, many university graduates may need the cash for their day-to-day expenses.
“It is definitely worth doing, particularly even with the cost of living crisis still lingering on a little bit, having that extra boost of cash right now could make a world of difference,” Mr Allingham said.