Would I be better off taking the payrise monthly, or a lump sum at the end?

> Though if they overpay as a result, they can at least get that back You have to be careful about that, they won't let you claim overpayments back if you earnt over the repayment threshold. To illustrate what I mean by that, I reclaimed my student loan payments between starting my first job after my postgraduate degree last autumn and the new financial year.  I'd been taxed as if I was earning £36k (which I was), but because I started over halfway through the financial year my total pay for that financial year was only about £13.5k. (i.e. well under the repayment threshold) The repayment threshold for plan 2 is currently £28,470, which is about 9.5 months of pay at £36k. Which means that if you're unemployed and then start a £36k job at the beginning of *June*, rather than partway through November, you'll pay student loans as if you're earning £36,000 that year (£56.48/month) when you're actually only earning £30k that year and should only be paying 9% of the £1530 you've exceeded the threshold by (£11.48/month).  In that scenario, they won't let you claim back the £45/month you overpaid by because you earnt over the threshold, even though you weren't over the threshold by as much as your payslips make it look that you were.