NSFAS works at avoiding allowance delays
The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) is in the process of finalising the year-end reconciliation of allowance data received from universities.
The scheme says the reconciliation of data enables NSFAS to disburse accurate allowances to the rightful recipients.
Higher Education spokesperson Ishmael Mnisi says data reconciliation also ensures that NSFAS addresses instances of over or under disbursement of allowances.
"This process also ensures that NSFAS disburse the allowances to institutions, which during the year, advanced allowances to students during the transition period towards the direct payment system.
"This data reconciliation process also accommodates changes in the type of allowances provided to students," says Mnisi.
Universities allowances are distributed in ten installments, from February to November.
According to the NSFAS system, the payment at the end of October for the November allowance is intended to be the 10th and final installment of the 2023 academic year allowance, and no further allowances are scheduled for December.
However, this is except in the case of the mop-up payments (final disbursements), which are as a result of the year-end reconciliation of the final data as received from institutions.
"In order to address the impact of these changes, NSFAS will be discussing with institutions the cut-of-date for changes to be made by students and institutions in order to avoid delays in the processing of allowances.
“Furthermore, NSFAS is currently working on integrating its data systems with that of institutions in order to minimize delays in disbursement by providing real-time information between NSFAS and institutions," adds Mnisi.
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