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Received NSFAS Student Loan/bursary? Help
- Thread starter vorman
- Start date
TheChamp
Honorary Master
I used NSFAS long ago, the card was still Eduloan and it seldom had any money loaded on it, unlike these days when you get R14m to spend.
Johnatan56
Honorary Master
Currently there is still a payment problem, there are some who still haven't received their approved funding.
Many thanks guys for your input. The issue here is, the student received funding from NSFAS paid directly to the university. The student has obviously qualified for the funding.
The university statement shows the funds received and some funds going to the Fundi card. Odd amounts and also not sure whether this overs the whole year or not. Also not sure, are these monies now a LOAN or BURSARY? The student is unsure whether to go mad at checkers with the R1000 loaded and if all this will need to be paid back after finishing the studies.
Drifter
Honorary Master
Pay back they money.
TheChamp
Honorary Master
Here is how it used to work in my time, a part of it was converted into a bursary when you pass your courses, can't remember if it was 40 or 60%, the remaining you had to repay when you are working. The last time I checked Zuma had approved free education and students no longer had to repay NSFAS making all those students who studied earlier very jealous, has anything changed?
Johnatan56
Honorary Master
No, he made a very select few at a certain income receive NSFAS. There are some unis that dropped outstanding fees if your household income was below a certain amount, think it was something along the lines of R40k/year, but don't quote me on that figure, I just know it wasn't a livable figure.
Had a friend on the NSFAS thing, her family income was less than R20k at the time, she used to receive cash on a card for groceries, about R1700pm from february to november. She only used it on take away and crap that didn't make sense.
No nothing has changed but the student has qualified according to Zuma's free education for households earning less than the R350k I think. Hence the reason she received the funding. Just not sure now whether to use the money or not.
Yes exactly, Receives a bulk payment every few months.
Theres a few hundred for groceries, few hundred to be withdrawn at checkers as well.
This will help the student but the concern was whether this is a bursary so the student is afraid to use much of it.
In addition to the university fees, a portion has been paid by NSFAS, the parent paid another portion. University told parent to stop paying the class fees because she had already qualified for NSFAS, and now that the parent has paid, NSFAS will not pay the remainder of the fees.
TheChamp
Honorary Master
My advice, use the money, in an ideal situation you would not have to use it if you don't need to and it was supposed to go back into the fund to help someone else, knowing how chaotic NSFAS admin systems are, not using that money and hoping it goes back into the fund is risky, the student should use it otherwise it will be part of someone else's R14m windfall.
konfab
Honorary Master
Speak for yourself m8. I had zero problem with paying back the money I borrowed, as it was the agreement I signed.
TheChamp
Honorary Master
True, it was not a serious comment, I also spent a fair bit of my early employment years paying back the money, it felt good knowing that it was going to help someone else, But some people I know flatly refused to pay the money back, there was no will from NSFAS to recover the money, when Nxasana was still there he talked about serious money that was still owed to SARS, I just don't understand why this is not being corrected.
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konfab
Honorary Master
Civil society pressure is stronger than the law in this country. There would be an mass protest if they dared to make everyone pay back what they owe.
TheChamp
Honorary Master
I seriously doubt this, these are people who are working, earning a certain amount of money that qualifies them to start paying the money back. Since students are not required to pay back anything nowadays things might be a little bit complicate though. I feel it was a bad decision, there was nothing wrong with how NSFAS was doing things before, I seem to remember that there was a salary threshold at which you would be forced to pay them back, as long as you were not working all you had to do was send them an affidavit or state that you are earning this much money and there were no issues.
Johnatan56
Honorary Master
They are required, and it's also a pitiful max amount. And yes, under a certain amount it is not forced, but that amount is tiny: http://www.nsfas.org.za/content/downloads/Salary Deduction Table.pdf
Starts at R30k yearly income where you pay, earning minimum wage should put you in that bracket.
TheChamp
Honorary Master
So everything is still as it was, as soon as you get a job you pay back the money?
Johnatan56
Honorary Master
Yep, all that Zuma implemented was an increase in the amount allowed to qualify, which was previously quite low as I don't think it was adjusted for inflation for quite a while, and the unis themselves struck old debt for households below a certain income.
The problem with NSFAS is that they can't take it directly out of your earnings and that a very large majority of people who fail in their degree never pay back the money (you're charged the full years fees even if you drop out halfway through the second term, which I agree with as they already spent the money and gave you a spot for the year).
NSFAS is also terrible at forcing income collection, including that you have to report that you are earning that income (as far as I am aware, might have changed within the last ~3 years) rather than directly charging you. Tbh, NSFAS should be tied in with SARS.
And note this:
which means NSFAS will go broke within the next 2/3 years or be completely tax payer base funded rather than just partially. http://www.nsfas.org.za/content/repayments.html
Only applies to below certain income as far as I am aware, so not sure why they have that on the site.
TheChamp
Honorary Master
I agree,Thanks for the explanation.
Back in my day the money was actually a loan. Parts of the loan was converted into a bursary based on your marks. The higher the marks the higher the amount converted. I fortunately had good marks so a substantial amount was converted for me and I paid the balance when I started working. I would suggest your family member not go on a shopping spree as he/she might have to pay it back once they start working.