Hundreds of thousands of graduates made unnecessary student loan repayments last financial year, but many still haven’t claimed repayment.

Data from the Student Loans Corporation has revealed millions of pounds were mistakenly paid by graduates below the threshold, with nearly 60,000 people mistakenly continuing to pay off their loans after the balance had been cleared.

There are four ways someone can accidentally overpay their loan:

• Making repayments despite earning below the annual repayment threshold
• Being included in the wrong student loan repayment plan
• Repayment before the repayment period begins
• Continuing repayment after balance is cleared.

Tom Allingham, Save the Student’s student money expert, says: “The most common reason for overpaying – doing so despite earning below the repayment threshold – usually occurs if a graduate’s salary changes throughout the year.

“They can trigger repayment by suddenly exceeding the weekly or monthly threshold by working extra shifts, receiving a bonus, or moving to a higher-paying role in the middle of the year.

“However, if their total earnings at the end of the financial year still fall below £27,295, they are entitled to a refund of any refunds made in that period.”

It’s worth claiming the loan back for anything you overpaid, as most graduates won’t repay the loan in full until the balance is cleared.

£61.6 million was given back to graduates after the digital refund service was launched in May this year.

Want to know how to claim a refund but not sure if you overpaid? Cost of living expert Megan Harwood-Baynes explains…

If you’re friends with me and you went to college, I’ve probably nagged you to check if you’re eligible for student loan refund because it’s SO easy.

All you have to do is log into your student loan account (only official government website) and go to the main home page. This is the scary part that shows you how much you owe. Ignore this for now (I always do).

Scroll down and click the button that says “request a refund” (I’ve highlighted it in red below).

Double check that they still have the correct account information for you (this may not be up to date if you’ve changed banks since being a student) and then click submit.

This is it.

You will be notified within a few days if the refund is on the way. The fun part about this is that for some reason the SLC doesn’t actually tell you how much you’ll get. Instead, you receive a very cryptic email saying that some money will be transferred to your account within a few days.

My refund totaled £9 and one friend got £17 back, but another got a few hundred pounds back.

Be that as it may, the effort versus reward for this one is very easy – a £9 button click still works out pretty well.

And SLC say the average amount they pay back is £280 in 2023-4 and £250 this year, so you could get a nice, easy bonus just before Christmas.