The first point of call for students in need of funding for their education is the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS). This scheme is more inclusive than other bursary schemes, because it was deliberately designed to offer help to students from poor and working-class families, to help them fund their education, not because of their academic performances, or any other yardstick, but because of their need.
The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) provides money to meet student needs in the form of University or college fees, accommodation, books and even living expenses. However, for the scheme not to be overrun by fraud, there has to be proper record keeping and verification. That is facilitated by providing proper documentation which goes before applications can be approved, and funded.
Therefore, you need to upload your NSFAS supporting documents. Without doing this, your application cannot be approved, and you cannot receive money from the fund.
How To Upload Your NSFAS Documents
All NSFAS supporting documents are uploaded directly on the NSFAS website, and so you have to be online, preferably on a laptop computer, or alternatively on a tablet, or possibly on a mobile. Phone.
Go to http://my.nsfas.org.za and log in. You will log in with your username and password, as you provided when you registered for the scheme.
Please note that if you have not previously registered you cannot expect any funds, neither can you upload any documents.
As soon as you login, you will receive the option to upload your outstanding supporting documents. When you have uploaded the documents, you just have to click on the tab that says ‘Submit Documents’.
When you have uploaded all the documents and the process is complete, you will receive a notification that says ‘Outstanding application documents submitted successfully uploaded’.
Precautions to take when Uploading Documents
The NSFAS approval board is always very meticulous when approving accounts for funding. Therefore, you must ensure that all documents you upload must be clear and legible. All documents must not be blurred, or have any marks.
All documents must not have any alterations and must be clearly legible.
All documents must not have any discrepancies with the details typed into the registration portal such as Name, Age, Date of Birth, and so on.
If you have a problem taking photos of documents using your cell phone you can go to an NSFAS or an NYDA office and ask the officials to assist you. If there is no NSFAS or NYDA office near you, and you have already applied to a college or university then you may approach their fees office, or their Financial Aid office to assist you.
Any of the above precautions not followed may cause your application to be declined.
What are the Documents You Need?
You need to upload the following documents to complete your NSFAS application.
Copy of your ID
Proof of income of guardian:
Consent Form
Proof of income
Disability Annexure A
A completed and signed Vulnerable Child Declaration
Retrenchment letter
Death certificate/s
Divorce decree
Please note: that every applicant needs to provide Identity documents of himself, and his parents. You also need to provide your parent’s or guardian’s proof of income showing that your total household income is less than R300,000 per year.
The consent form is to be filled by your parents/guardians.
The disability Annexure form is only for students who have some form of disability.
Vulnerable Child Declaration is to be filled by a Social Worker familiar with the student. If the student is a vulnerable child, the Consent form should also be filled by the social worker.
Divorce Decrees are only for students who were dependent on their spouses but have now been divorced from their spouses.
Related:
Conclusion:
All information on your NSFAS application is handled via the myNSFAS student portal. The only exception might be the appeals form, or when a student has completely lost access to his myNFSAS account. In the past, it was common to go to the NFSAS offices in order to complete the registration process, but now you no longer have to go to an NSFAS office.
The NSFAS approval board is very strict with the rules regarding uploaded documents. This is to avoid fraud by the applicants. Therefore, you are required to ensure that you supply all your documents accurately, clearly, and without any alterations.
If you are found not to have followed the guidelines your application will most likely not be approved, and you will not get any money from the NSFAS.
The NSFAS scheme is designed for poor South African students. Therefore, for a student to be eligible for NSFAS funding he must be a South African citizen; and must be poor. Technically that means he must come from a family with a combined annual earning that is less than R350 000 per annum. This figure goes as high as R600 000 per annum for students with disabilities.