As with the other elements of funding in the government's undergraduate student finance package (i.e. grants for dependants, Disabled Student Allowance, and the pre-2016 Maintenance Grants), the payments are made by the Student Loans Company (SLC).

Their head office is in Glasgow. Information about the Company can be found on their website - www.slc.co.uk.

Currently, applications can be made either online through the government's Student Finance website - www.direct.gov.uk/student-finance - or by a paper application form (PN1 for new undergraduate students, and PR1 for continuing students). For students in England, a contact centre authority in Darlington called Student Finance England will assess your application.

Student Finance England assess your application to see how much you are entitled to receive, and then tell the Student Loans Company how much to pay you. Any Maintenance Loan payments due to you will be paid into your bank account on a termly basis. Tuition Fee Loans are paid directly to the University.

Contact details for Student Finance England can be found here

You must apply EACH YEAR for your student finance. The SLC arrange for your Tuition Fees Loan to be paid directly to the University to cover your fees. Then, as with all elements of a student finance package from Student Finance England, the Maintenance Loan is first calculated over the full year of study, and then split into THREE termly instalments by the SLC. (Postgraduate Loans follow this same termly-instalment model, although of course there is no separate fees loan for postgraduates).

Therefore, the Maintenance Loan payments will be made at the start of each academic term. Student Finance England splits the payments into instalments that are roughly equal thirds - regardless of the differences in duration of your actual academic terms.

Check the term dates for your own particular programme of study, but for most courses the termly payments would follow the following examples . . . .

For most of our September starts:

Payment 1 = Start of Term 1, in September
Payment 2 = Start of Term 2, after Christmas break, in January
Payment 3 = Start of Term 3, after Easter break, in April/May

For most of our January/February starts:

Payment 1 = Start of your Term 1, in Jan/Feb
Payment 2 = Start of Term 2, after Easter break, in April/May
Payment 3 = Start of Term 3, in September

REMEMBER:

• Maintenance Loan payments are made directly into a UK bank account of your choosing - as are any other elements of your student support that are payable to you. The SLC will not make payments by any other method.
• Tuition Fees Loan payments are made directly to the University in order to pay for your tuition.

The interest rates on student loans depend on when you started your course and received your first loan. This determines which student loan 'Repayment Plan' you are on. The interest rates for each Plan, and how they are calculated, are shown on the Government's website here. 

UK full-time undergraduate students will not have to begin repaying their loan(s) until the April after they have finished or left their course. At this time, the Student Loans Company will calculate the amount of Maintenance Loans and Tuition Fees Loans that you have taken, and this will be your total student loan debt.

The SLC work with HM Revenue & Customs (the UK's Tax Office) to collect repayments. Your repayments will be shown on your pay-slips - unless you are self-employed when the repayments will be taken through the tax self-assessment system.

The amount you repay will be linked to your annual income. For undergraduate loans, each year you will be expected to repay 9% of your income that is over a certain threshold. For postgraduate loans you will also be expected to repay 6% of your income over a different threshold.

The income threshold is different for each Repayment Plan (see explanation above) and is updated each year by the Government.

See the Government's website here for details of the income thresholds for each Plan.

Important Note:

• If you started your course prior to September 2006, then this repayment model will run until you either pay off your loan(s) or you reach the age of 65.
• If you started your course between 2006 and 2012, then the repayment model will run for a 25 year period. If there is any balance left to repay after the 25 years expire, then this will be written off by the government.
• If you started your course between 2012 and 2023, then the repayment model will run for a 30 year period, before any unpaid balance is written off.
• If you started your course in or after Sept 2023, then the repayment model will run for a 40 year period, before any unpaid balance is written off

The government will also write off any unpaid student loans if you become disabled and as a result can never work again, or if you die. (This way, your student loan debt should never be transferred to another person).

Martin Lewis' MoneySavingExpert website has put together some excellent information on Student Loans that is filled with examples (and jargon-free!).

It gives you some more information on topics such as: how student loans work, how they are treated for mortgage purposes, and how much you are actually likely to repay in a 30-year repayment term, among others.

See the webpage here - 
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/students/