News story

SLC pays £1.1 billion in first term Maintenance Loan payments to students today

The Student Loans Company (SLC) has paid £1.1 billion in first term Maintenance Loan payments into students’ bank accounts across the UK today (Monday 22nd September).

SLC enables more than 1.5 million students each year to invest in their futures by providing financial support to access further and higher education. Today marks the biggest payment date at the start of the 25/26 academic year, as students start or return to university. Similarly timed payments of £798 million were made in September 2023 and £0.9 billion in September 2024.  This follows £686 million paid earlier in September,  with the expectation that £2.3bn in maintenance funding will be paid by the end of the month. Tuition Fee Loan payments are paid directly to higher education providers later in the autumn.

SLC is encouraging students to log-in to their online account to track their application and payment progress. Payments are released to students when their university or college confirms that they have registered/enrolled. Once SLC has this information, it will send a text message to students a few days before the expected payment date to let them know that their Maintenance Loan is on the way.

As payments continue being made, SLC is reminding students to be vigilant of scams targeting their payments. Read more here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/students-reminded-to-be-vigilant-of-scams-as-2526-academic-year-begins

  • In the 24/25 academic cycle SLC paid out £11.3bn in maintenance and £12.5bn to universities and colleges in tuition fee loans.

Updates to this page

Published 22 September 2025