NSFAS apologises, confirms R350 grant will not affect funding

The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) has provided clarity following reports circulating on social media that students receiving the R350 social relief of distress grant did not qualify for further education funding.

This follows a NSFAS post on Twitter, which the aid scheme has since apologised for, saying that the tweet was “factually incorrect”.

“NSFAS would like to clarify that it is factually incorrect to say that a person who receives the R350 grant will not be funded. The NSFAS funding criteria looks at the combined total household income of R350,000,” NSFAS CEO, Andile Nongogo said in a statement.

ALSO READ: Nzimande blames auditing ‘dispute’ for R500m NSFAS irregular expenditure

Nongogo noted that NSFAS took full accountability for the incorrect information as “this was erroneously sent by an uninformed employee”.

“The Covid-19 grant is not part of the eligibility criteria for funding students and therefore the R350 is not taken into account.

“It is important to note that all Sassa (South African Social Security Agency) grant recipients are funded automatically. NSFAS apologises for any inconvenience this might have caused,” he said.

The R350 social relief of distress grant is a temporary grant meant to help the unemployed in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and which government has since extended for a further three months.

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.