Student Loan - who has my overpayment ?

[headache5678]

On 10 June 2010 I repaid my student loan by cheque following the SLC (eventually) confirming the outstanding balance.

 

I now realise that none of the payments deducted from my monthly salary for the tax year ended 5th April 2010. Maybe some repayments made in earlier tax years might not have been deducted from my SLC loan as they do not seem to be able to easily supply a statement like a bank would issue (er that is one that shows all the debits, credits and the running balance).

 

Anyway, FTYE 05APR10 alone, I guess that I have overpaid by about £300-500.

 

Reading the SLC website, it seem s that once I started earning over the threshold, the SLC told HMRC who would have told my employer what to deduct. Only once a year (the annual return) would my employer tell the HMRC, who then tell the SLC what to take off my SLC debt for the previous year's deduction. This presumably means that no one ever knows the actual balance because, as a minimum, the annual return is always a few months behind.

 

Anyway my question is - who is actually holding my cash overpayment ? Maybe my employer holds it initially then periodically (quarterly, semi-annually or annually) it might pass it to the HMRC who them later pass it to the SLC after holding it for a few months themselves? Could this be true ?

 

How do I get my overpayment back please ?