THOUSANDS of university graduates are set to be issued refunds due to a student loan error which saw people being overcharged.
Around 71,000 graduates on Plan 2 student loans have been hit by technical issues leaving them with incorrect balances, the Student Loans Company (SLC) said.
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Thousands of graduates are set to get refunds after a technical error saw them overcharged on their student loan repayments Credit: Getty
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The glitch led to 41,000 people seeing their student loan increase, while 30,000 saw their balance go down by mistake.
Anyone who overpaid on their loan will be issued a refund, the SLC said, and students who have seen their balance increase because of the blunder will be contacted.
The issue affected around 1.3% of all grads on Plan 2 loans, which covers anyone who started their undergraduate course between 2012 and 2022.
The blunder was caused by two “technical errors” by the SLC and HMRC, which meant interest on student loans was wrongly calculated.
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One error was caused by a technical issue meaning the wrong income information was used when interest was calculated.
The other was due to a HMRC income reporting error, which affected people who had income through both PAYE and Self Assessment.
The SLC said both errors have now been fixed and interest will be applied correctly going forward.
It comes after Labour announced earlier this year it would cap interest rates for student loans at 6%.
The Government has come under fire for failing to tackle the issue, which has left graduates grappling with eye-watering levels of debt.
An SLC spokesperson said: “We are contacting some Plan 2 customers to inform them we’re correcting their loan balance following technical issues which have now been resolved.
“Those customers affected do not need to take any action and regular repayment amounts will not change.
“SLC and HMRC are very sorry that this has happened.”
