More than 12,000 NSFAS applicants must check documents soonest

The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) is urging 12,882 students with outstanding and incorrect documents to resubmit their forms as soon as possible.

In a statement NSFAS administrator Dr Randall Carolissen said the organisation has made significant progress in reducing the number of outstanding and incorrect documents from more than 42,000 before lockdown.

Carolissen said NSFAS will distribute April 2020 allowances starting this week, based on actual registration data received, to 376,659 university students and 202,681 Technical Vocational Education Training (TVET) college students.

“Ensuring students receive their allowances during this time of general hardship and uncertainty is essential. Students are entitled to their allowances to sustain themselves, continue with academic activities online, and pay for learning materials,” Carolissen said.

On January 31 and March 25, NSFAS paid more than R3.6bn and R1.3bn respectively as upfront payments to institutions. This enabled NSFAS qualifying students to register without the burden of having to pay registration fees, and provided interim relief to students.

As of April 17, the organisation said it had disbursed more than R7.2bn (20% of the total DHET grant) for tuition and allowances to public institutions and qualifying students.

Carolissen urged students to open bank accounts to ensure more efficient disbursements of funds from institutions.

“Going forward, NSFAS is working on a banking model that will eliminate all intermediaries in the disbursement value chain and facilitate direct deposits from NSFAS into student bank accounts,” he said.

At present, NSFAS said it was already paying directly to students from 32 of the 50 Technical Vocational Education & Training (TVET) colleges.

“During this week NSFAS will be extending this facility to three additional colleges to ensure the improved flow of funds directly to students. Students will be informed accordingly,” said Carolissen.