Increasing private pension to lower student loan repayments?

Hello all,


Forgive me if this is in the wrong place, but I'm new.


I basically have a student loan that I pay back through PAYE weekly from deductions from my earnings. As we do a lot of overtime my payments each week jump from around £7 (base) to approximately £40/week


The amount I have outstanding on my student loan means that I very much doubt this will be cleared in the 30 years and subsequently any remaining will be written off.


My question is: Is it possible to increase my private pension contributions as a way of lowering the payment I will make to the student loans company? IE, will the student loans company take their amount AFTER other deductions such as my pension deductions have been taken in to consideration?


My theory is and hopefully it will work is that if It's going to end up being written off in a few years then I would be better off putting the surplus income in to a provate pension as opposed to the student loans company and will have more in the pot in the 30 odd years before I retire.


If this may be feasible could somebody point me to the direction of who I need to speak to first. My employer? My private pension company? Student loan company?


Thanks in advance


Matt