Answers · UK 2025/26

How do I get a refund for overpaid student loan repayments?

If you have overpaid your student loan -- commonly because you had multiple jobs, fluctuating income across the year, or repayments continued briefly after you actually finished paying off the balance -- you can apply for a refund directly from the Student Loans Company (SLC) via their online overpayment refund form, rather than through HMRC.

Last updated: 1 July 2026Last reviewed: 1 July 2026How we verify

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Student loan overpayments happen more often than borrowers realise, and the refund process is handled separately from normal HMRC tax refunds, which surprises many people. **Common causes of overpayment** - Working multiple jobs where each employer separately applies the annual threshold to your pay from that job alone, when your combined income across all jobs is what should actually determine your repayment liability - Irregular or seasonal income where repayments are deducted based on a single high-earning month or period, even though your annual income overall is below the annual threshold - Continuing to have deductions taken for a pay period or two after you have actually fully repaid your loan balance, before your employer receives the 'stop deductions' notice from HMRC/SLC - Repayments taken via PAYE while you were also required to repay via Self Assessment, causing double-counting for part of the year **How to check if you have overpaid** Log into your online account with the Student Loans Company (studentloanrepayment.co.uk or the SLC's online service) to see your running balance and repayment history. If deductions have continued after your balance reached zero, or if your annual income (checked via your P60 or Self Assessment figures) was actually below the relevant Plan threshold despite deductions being taken, you have grounds for a refund claim. **How to claim the refund** Overpayment refunds are claimed directly from the Student Loans Company via their online overpayment refund request form (searchable on gov.uk), not through HMRC -- this differs from most other PAYE overpayment refunds, which usually come via HMRC directly or through your Self Assessment return. You will typically need your P60s or payslips for the relevant tax year(s) to evidence the overpayment. **Worked example** A graduate on Plan 2 works two part-time jobs, each paying £20,000 a year (combined £40,000). Because the £28,470-ish repayment threshold is applied separately by each employer to that job's £20,000 salary alone, and £20,000 is below the threshold for each individual job, no student loan deductions are taken by either employer during the year -- but because HMRC calculates the actual liability based on combined income of £40,000 via the annual Self Assessment reconciliation (if registered) or a subsequent review, they may find they actually owed some repayment for the year on the combined figure, which is the reverse scenario (underpayment, not overpayment) that some borrowers in this situation face; conversely, someone whose single job briefly spiked to overtime-heavy months but averaged below-threshold annual income overall may find they had repayments deducted based on those high months, creating an actual overpayment reclaimable from SLC once their true annual income is confirmed to be below the threshold. **Timing** Refund claims can typically be backdated for several years, but processing may take some weeks, and interest does not automatically apply to the refunded amount in the same way it would for certain HMRC tax refunds -- check the current SLC guidance for exact timescales when submitting a claim.