Martin Lewis says 'millions' of UK households are owed refunds and 'it's been going on a long time'

The Martin Lewis Money Show star spoke out on Tuesday night, during the latest edition of his weekly financial advice and consumer show, which aired from 8pm til 9pm on ITV.

Martin Lewis has shared a handy refund tip which could leave UK households far better off. The ITV The Martin Lewis Money Show star spoke out on Tuesday night, during the latest edition of his weekly financial advice and consumer show, which aired from 8pm til 9pm on ITV.

Mr Lewis urged UK households to see if they're owed a student loan refund - after many were found to have overpaid. There are four different groups of people this impacts - the first being those in the UK who put on the wrong payment plan by their employers and bosses.

A second reason some overpaid was that they were asked to start repaying the loan before reaching the salary threshold to do so. The third group were some people who were still having money deducted from their pay despite having fully repaid the loan, Mr Lewis also explained.

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And the fourth group was others who have started repaying too early. People don’t have to start paying their student loans until the April after they graduate, however, some people were paying before. The BBC Sounds podcast host explained that people who have overpaid shouldn’t leave the money where it is because “student loans don’t work like normal loans”.

He described it as a “graduate tax” and said the refund is “absolute cash in your pocket”. He told viewers: "There's no limit on how far back you can reclaim student loan overpayments, so there are likely millions of people who are owed money because it's typically one million a year and this has been going on a long time."

In a video posted in October, Mr Lewis said: “If possible, gather your old payslips, your payroll number and a PAYE reference number, and you'll have those when you get in touch either online or phone the SLC - (they would prefer it to be online - and you just tell them that you think you overpaid.”