The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) responded to the questions as follows:
1. (a) Allowances can only be paid to students after an institution has sent proof of their students’ registration to NSFAS for the generation of Loan Agreement Forms (LAFs) and Schedules of Particulars (SOPs) for students to sign.
It should be noted that NSFAS pays allowances directly to students who are on the sBux system.
The following challenges have resulted in students receiving late payment or not receiving allowances through the sBux system:
(b) Institutions on the sBux system, i.e. 5 Universities and 19 TVET colleges, were affected by the challenges highlighted in 1(a):
Universities:
TVET Colleges:
The remaining 52 institutions received direct payments, i.e. the first payment on 16 January 2017 and second payment on 21 April 2017, for the distribution of allowances to their respective students.
(c)) sBux institutions are expected to send proof of their students’ registration to NSFAS before LAFs and SOPs can be generated for students to sign. It is important to note that allowances can only be disbursed to students once they have signed their LAFs and SOPs. Not all sBux students who qualify for funding automatically qualify for allowances.
The majority of TVET colleges still need to submit their student registration information and allowance allocations for SOPs to be generated before students can sign and have their allowances disbursed.
2. As at 30 March 2017, 27 400 students eligible for sBux had signed their LAF and SOPs of which 25 120 students were receiving sBux and a further 2 280 students still needed to be processed.
COMPILER/CONTACT PERSONS:
EXT:
DIRECTOR – GENERAL
STATUS:
DATE:
QUESTION 974 APPROVED/NOT APPROVED/AMENDED
Dr BE NZIMANDE, MP
MINISTER OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING
STATUS:
DATE: