Student loans are a form of financial support available to students carrying out a course of higher education in the United Kingdom.

Any outstanding student loans taken out after August 1998 are repayable through the payroll to HMRC. HMRC passes any student loan payments to the Student Loans Company.

To find out more about the different student and postgraduate loans, go to Gov.UK.

 NOTE: Postgraduate loans are different to student loans. Use our article to set up postgraduate loans. 

Set up a student loan deduction

1. Click Employee then select the required employee.
2. Click Employee Record then click Employment.
3. Click Student/Postgraduate Loans.
4. In the Student Loan section, enter the Start Date for the student loan.
5. Select the plan type from the Loan Type list.
6. If known, enter the End Date.
7. If applicable, enter the Priority. If the employee has an attachment of earnings order (AEO), enter a priority to determine the order to deduct student loan.
    TIP: AEOs are normally a higher priority than student loans. If you're unsure about this or about protected earnings below, contact the authority that issued the AEO to check. 
8. If the employee has an AEO and it's relevant, enter any Protected Earnings.
9. Click OK then Save.
10. Click Close.

 NOTE: If an employee has a student loan and postgraduate loan in payroll, you can deduct them at the same time.

Change student loan plan type mid-year

There can be times when you need to change an employee's student loan plan type. For help with doing this, follow the change a student loan plan type mid-year article.

Multiple student loans

When an employee has more than one student loan to repay, HMRC advises you to deduct one student loan through your payroll software. Find out more in the multiple student loans article. 

View student loan information

You can view student or postgraduate loan deduction information both pre-update and post-update. Find out more in our article to view student loan information.

When to stop a student loan

There are different ways of stopping a student loan, depending on the employee's situation. Find out more in our article on when to stop a student loan.

Calculation examples

Use our Student loans example calculations article.