Student Loans Company
This information is for students who applied through Student Finance England for financial support. See the following pages if you applied through:
What are loans and grants?
Loans are a repayable type of student finance which accrues interest and is provided to support you while studying they include the Maintenance Loan and Tuition Fee Loan.
Grants are usually a non-repayable type of student finance to support you while studying. There are different types of grants you may be eligible to apply for, such as:
How we calculate your payments
When you apply to us for student finance and weve worked out how much you can get, youll be sent a Notification of Entitlement letter. This shows you what student finance youll get for the full academic year.
Your total student finance payments are split over three terms, and are paid at the start of each term to help with costs for the term ahead.
You remain entitled to the payments for each term if:
- you continue to attend your university or college and dont take a break, change or leave your course; and
- all the necessary financial evidence to support the application is accurate and has been provided on time.
What is a loan or grant overpayment?
If you dont comply with the requirements above, your entitlement for the academic year will be reassessed and reduced. As payments are made in advance of each term, the reduction will result in you being paid too much. This is known as an overpayment.
Example
If youre entitled to a Maintenance Loan of 6,000 this will be paid over three terms.
Youll be paid 2,000 ahead of term 1
Youll be paid another 2,000 ahead of term 2
You leave your course during term 2, this means youre not entitled to the full 2,000 weve already paid you. Well reassess and reduce your entitlement.This means youve been overpaid.
Overpayments are a portion of your total balance that youve already been paid, which due to a change in your circumstances now need to be repaid as youre no longer entitled to it. Theyre not additional charges or penalties.
Loan overpayments are not subject to the normal repayment terms and conditions. They are exempt from both the repayment threshold and date from which they come into repayment.
This means youll need to repay your loan overpayment separately and earlier than the rest of your balance. This also applies if youre already having repayments taken from your salary or your Self Assessment tax return.
What happens next
If youve been overpaid, well send you a letter to let you know. Youll also receive a new Notification of Entitlement letter showing your updated student finance entitlement for the academic year.
Based on government regulations, Student Loans Company has a legal responsibility to recover any loan or grant overpayment. To prevent us passing your account to an external debt recovery agency, please contact us as soon as possible after receiving your overpayment letter.
Further information
There can be many reasons why an overpayment has happened. More detailed information based on your specific situation can be found on our other pages:
- A change in your household income has led to an overpayment
- A change in your circumstances has led to an overpayment
- Your Childcare Grant entitlement has reduced
- Suspending and withdrawing from your course
If youre struggling financially because youve been overpaid and your student finance has been reduced, find out what help may be available.
Last updated 5 August 2022 +show all updates
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First published.