No. There is no law that says you must meticulously check every payslip to make sure your loan repayment deductions are going OK. But you might want to make sure you know the rules so that you keep an eye on the position generally. As a rule of thumb based on the current lower limit of £15,000 - if you earn £288 or less a week or £1,250 or less a month, expect to see no deductions from your wages. If you earn £288 or more a week or £1,250 or more a month, expect to see some deductions.

If you have more than one job - each job will have its own £15,000 lower limit. You can see how this works in the example below.

Example

Jodi started work as an employee in her local government offices in April 2008. Her salary for 2008/09 was £18,000 before tax.

Jodi had a student loan, which she will need to start repaying now that she is earning and her income is over £15,000.

• Jodi's total income for 2008/09 is £18,000 gross before tax. Her loan repayments will be worked out as £(18,000-15,000) @ 9% = £270 a year. If Jodi is paid monthly her employer will deduct £270/12 = £22.50 per month from her salary before it is paid to her.



• If Jodi had another job in the evenings and she earned £9,000 in the second one, she would only make loan repayments in respect of her first job, which we worked out above.



• However if the evening job paid Jodi £16,000 per year, she will need to make loan repayments in respect of this employment as well as her local authority job. She gets another £15,000 lower limit to set against the income and so Jodi will make loan repayments for 2008/09 of £ (16,000-15,000) @ 9% = £90 a year. If she is paid monthly Jodi's employer will deduct £90/12 = £7.50 per month from her salary before it is paid to her.