The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) has revealed that 75% of the bursary beneficiaries have received their allowance payments. The financial aid scheme said remaining students will receive their allowances if their institutions take the appropriate action.
NSFAS says allowances have been paid to students whose registration data has been received. Registration data are submitted to NSFAS by institutions to confirm that the students are registered and therefore qualify for funding from NSFAS.
Today, 14 July 2023, NSFAS is paying allowances of approximately 75% of all beneficiaries for whom registration data has been received from institutions and successfully validated by NSFAS.
When NSFAS Allowances Will Be Paid
The financial aid scheme is calling on institutions to fast-track the process of submitting registration data of students which will allow NSFAS to approve the payment of allowances to students. Receipt of registration data by NSFAS will ensure students receive their NSFAS allowances payments at the end of July 2023.
All institutions are urged to fast-track the submission of the outstanding 25% of the registration data to ensure that beneficiaries are paid in the next payment run scheduled for the 31st of July 2023.
NSFAS Defunding Students
Earlier this month NSFAS began defunding students. This is being done to avoid wrongful and illegal allocation of funds to students, who do not meet the eligibility criteria to receive funding.
This is being done in response to findings from the Auditor-General, their internal compliance processes and the observations of the Special Investigation Unit (SIU).
They want to ensure that all students who receive money from NSFAS meet the scheme’s eligibility criteria. This will ensure NSFAS does not repeat the mistakes it made in the past where R5 billion to around 40,00 students who did not meet the scheme's eligibility criteria.
The prescriptions of our policies and the law will be implemented firmly and vigorously to avoid a repeat of the more than R5 billion that was allocated incorrectly to students since 2016.
However, NSFAS acknowledged that mistakes could have been made after receiving complaints that some students were defunded incorrectly. The scheme said they will undertake a process of verifying these complaints and take appropriate action based on their findings.
All students affected by the recent defunding process will be sent communication detailing the reasons for the defunding and advising them on steps to follow.
NSFAS Bank Account
In 2022, NSFAS announced that they will begin paying allowances directly to students. These direct allowance payments required students to register for a NSFAS bank account.
While it was envisioned that the direct allowance payment system would provide students with an easy way to access their money as well as provide them with a host of value-added services, students are encountering challenges with the new service.
It is the first time that the entity has taken a bold move to be directly accountable for the payment of student allowances. This new system, like any other new system, is bound to present new and unforeseen challenges.
Since the introduction of the direct payment system, students have complained about excessive bank charges and the inability to access their allowances. Students also had difficulty with the process of onboarding themselves on the system, directly impacting their ability to receive their NSFAS allowances.
NSFAS says this will revisit the fee structure of the NSFAS bank account to reduce the transaction charges students are currently paying.
The financial aid scheme has emphasised the importance of constructive engagement and a solution-oriented approach to address the challenges related to Direct Payments for student allowances
