Martin Lewis Says 5 Million People Born Between 1985 And 2003 Could Be In For Pay Day

Martin Lewis has issued a public service announcement to anyone born between 1985 and 2003, revealing that up to five million people in the UK could be eligible for a refund on their student loan repayments.

Speaking on The Martin Lewis Money Show, Lewis outlined several reasons why you might be owed a reimbursement as well as all the ways in which you might have overpaid.

The most common reason for overpaying is when you've not actually earned enough in that tax year to meet the minimum threshold - for example if you only worked for six months of the year, but for those six months your monthly salary was over the repayment threshold.

This does however depend on which repayment plan you are on – which you can check out either by going to your Student Loan account, or by looking in our handy guide here.

Reasons for having overpaid could include if you began working partway through the tax year, had time off, or if your income dropped substantially due to something like maternity leave or long-term sickness.

Lewis lists all the possible reasons why you may have overpaid here:

“The new figures say 1.1 million university leavers and graduates have overpaid their student loans in the 24/25 tax year.

"And that adds to at least four million people from figures and requests that we've given them for information in the past. So there could be five million of you out there who are owed money."

If you do think you’ve overpaid, or if you're unsure, it's probably worth getting in touch with the Student Loan Company to see if you could get your hands on some extra cash.

How to claim a refund on student loans

There are two ways to go about getting a student loan refund but first you need to find out if you're owed anything.

The best thing to do is to give the Student Loans Company a call on 0300 100 0611 and ask them if you're owed anything. If you are, they will tell you how much and arrange the refund for you there and then.

If you’re not a phone kinda person, you can fill in a refund request on the Student Loans Company website – but you will need your log in details, which, let’s face it, could be a hurdle…

It's worth noting that if you do receive a refund, the amount you get back will then be added back onto the total you owe. And while that might seem completely counterproductive, it is still worth doing for the majority of people who are not earning anywhere near enough to ever pay off their student debt in full.

However, if you are anywhere near having paid your loan off, it's probably best not to receive a refund, as anything added back onto the balance will add to the amount of interest owed.

According to Lewis, only around one in three people on Plan 2 will clear their balance in 30 years before it is wiped, meaning it's well worth getting a reimbursement for the vast majority of people!