The University of South Africa (Unisa) started disbursing student allowance payments from the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) in March 2023.
Since payments began, the university has already paid out allowances to 90 070 NSFAS students and are in the process of finalising allowances for students who were reviewed and confirmed late by NSFAS.
Unisa explained:
New students who qualify for incidental allowance disbursement will be paid on 15 March 2023 and learning material allowances for students who did not choose the laptop option will be disbursed from 22 March 2023.’
While Unisa made allowance payments from 15 March, students are reminded that it could take several days before the money reflects in their bank accounts.
NSFAS allowances for Unisa students are processed twice a month, in the first and the third week of each month.
Unisa reminded students that they could wait for up to 15 working days before refunds reflect in their bank accounts.
Furthermore, the institution added that it will deposit student allowances and refunds using its new electronic fund transfer (EFT) process.
Unisa refunds and allowance payments will work as follows:
- If you qualify for a refund and/or allowance, an email has been sent to your myLife email account, containing the relevant information along with a secure link to a site where the relevant banking details must be entered and submitted.
- After reading the email carefully, click on the link, enter your banking details and submit these. NB: Only your own, active bank account can be used. Payments to third-party accounts will not be processed. The account particulars will be verified against your ID number.
- The verification status of the details you have submitted will be displayed. This may not occur immediately – revisit the link until such time as the information is made available.
- If the bank account verification fails or is rejected, re-enter your banking details and make sure that they are correct.
The university advised students that should they not receive their allowances by the beginning of April 2023, they must contact the institution's Division of Student Funding (DSF)
Any queries and concerns can be directed to the Unisa DSF via [email protected].
