NSFAS Explain Delay in Payment of Allowances In 2023
In todays latest NSFAS News – Despite assurances that this academic year would go off without a hitch, both the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) and the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) have been unable to deliver.
According to Slumezi Skosana, a spokesperson for NSFAS, the program was supposed to transfer funds to universities ahead of schedule so that students could start receiving their allowances at the start of the 2023–2024 school year.
The program has a history of being slow to distribute funds to eligible students, and this year was no exception.
Students at a variety of universities took protest action because they were unable to successfully register for the year due to the emergence of financial blocks/exclusions, which was caused in part by the NSFAS delay.
Skosana said that institutions sometimes fail to provide NSFAS with student registration data, which causes a delay in the disbursement of allowances.
Most students who have not yet been paid by the bursary scheme are waiting for tertiary institutions to submit funding data, which they have been slow to do.
As of January 31st, 2023, NSFAS began transferring funds to postsecondary institutions (including TVET colleges and universities) for distribution to eligible students.
On March 6, 2023, a second up-front payment was made to universities while they were still finalizing allowance allocations and claims for the registration data.
The NSFAS accommodation allowance has been increased to a maximum of R45 000 this year, paid out over the course of a year, with students needing to find housing costing less than R4 500 per month.
According to the South African Union of Students, the accommodation allowance cap was implemented to regulate costs and prevent profiteering and price collusion by private student accommodation providers (SAUS).
