The data, released by the Student Loans Company, revealed that in 2020-21 the average overpayment was around £375 with the amount overpaid sitting at £16.9m, affecting 45,264 students. This, however, is a significant drop of 38% since 2015-16 which saw 88,450 people overpay £53.3m.

The figures have decreased slowly since the height in 2015-16, but there were still overpayment levels close to £30m in 2018-19 affecting 52,000 people.

From April 2019, HMRC began sending student loan information reported by employees to the Student Loans Company once a week and for people who are paid monthly by PAYE once a month instead of once a year which had been done previously.