How to claim a student loan refund
Because deductions are worked out pay period by pay period, it’s fairly common to repay more than you strictly needed to. Some of that you can get back.
When you can ask for a refund
You can ask the Student Loans Company (SLC) for a refund if:
- Your annual income was below the threshold. You made repayments, but your income over the whole tax year (6 April to 5 April) was less than your plan’s yearly threshold.
- You started repaying before you needed to. A deduction was taken before you were due to start.
- You repaid more than you owed. For example, your loan was cleared but deductions carried on.
- Your employer had you on the wrong plan. GOV.UK gives Plan 2 or Plan 4 borrowers who were on another plan as an example.
When you can’t
Extra repayments you chose to make can’t be refunded. A voluntary overpayment is final. See how to make a student loan overpayment.
Refunds for a low-income year
This is the most common one. A bonus or overtime can push a single month above the monthly threshold, so your employer deducts a repayment even though your income for the whole year is under the yearly threshold. The yearly thresholds this site uses for 2026–27 are:
- Plan 1: £26,900
- Plan 2: £29,385
- Plan 4: £33,795
- Postgraduate Loan: £21,000
GOV.UK’s refund page lists Plans 1, 2 and 4 and the Postgraduate Loan. If you’re on Plan 5 and think you’ve overpaid, ask the Student Loans Company how it applies to you.
Some rules to know:
- You can only ask about a tax year that has ended, and SLC won’t refund anything until it has confirmed your annual income with HMRC, which doesn’t happen until after the tax year finishes.
- If you’re repaying more than one of Plan 1, Plan 2 and Plan 4, you can only get a refund if your income was below the lowest threshold of the ones you have.
- Thresholds change each April, so check the figure for the year in question rather than today’s.
If you’ve repaid your loan in full
When you finish repaying, HMRC tells your employer to stop deductions, and that can take around four weeks, so you can end up paying in a little more than you owed. If that happens, SLC will try to contact you or refund you automatically (it appears on your bank statement as “SLC Receipts”). If you’ve overpaid and haven’t heard from them, you can ask.
You can avoid this by switching to Direct Debit for the final year of repayments. See paying off your student loan without overpaying.
How to ask
- For a low-income year in a previous tax year: sign in to your student loan repayment account and ask for a refund there.
- For any other reason: contact the Student Loans Company with your customer reference number (CRN).
Keep your paperwork
GOV.UK tells borrowers to keep their payslips and P60s, because you may need them for a refund. Your P60 shows total student loan deductions for the tax year. See why your deduction can look wrong for what causes the surprises.
Source: GOV.UK, Getting a refund. Rules can change, so check GOV.UK for the latest.