Your Academic Progress:
The Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) requires students to satisfactorily complete the academic requirements of their programs of study to continue to be eligible for financial assistance.
This means you are required to successfully complete the academic requirements of your program to continue to be eligible for OSAP. Frequent and/or multiple program switches, withdrawals and/or repeats of programs that are funded by OSAP are considered lack of academic progress. Please be aware that negotiating a loan and not attending can be considered fraudulent.
Changes in your personal life:
If you have an application submitted for OSAP and are attending school, you must report any changes to your Financial Aid Office. Changes may affect your eligibility or the amount of funding you should receive.
Changes that must be reported include:
- Family situation (e.g. information about marital status or children).
- Financial information (e.g. income and assets).
- Study period information (e.g. if you reduce your course load or withdraw from classes).
Income Verification:
If there are any changes to your income, you need to report these changes as soon as possible to the Financial Aid Office. Income information provided on your application is verified by the Ministry and by Revenue Canada and is subject to an audit.
If there was a significant variance between the incomes you reported to the Canada Revenue Agency and the income you reported on your OSAP application, then you may fail income verification. If you fail income verification, you will be required to provide proof of income. If your income was underreported to OSAP, you will be reassessed and the monies you received over your eligibility will become an overpayment. This may restrict you from further funding until the overpayment is repaid.
Changes to your course load:
Before you withdraw from a course or program, it is very important that you meet with a Financial Aid Officer at Cambrian College to verify and understand the impact that this will have on your loan funding. Your entitlement will be recalculated based on the reduction of course load and the actual time that you were in classes. Most likely, you will have received more funds than you are now entitled to and will be required to pay back the difference. At this point, you should use any funds that you have remaining from your OSAP loan to pay down your student loan.
If you take less than 60% of a full-course load or less than 40% if you are a student with a permanent disability, you are considered by OSAP to be studying part-time. Six months after your status has changed to part-time, you will be required to start repaying your Canada-Ontario integrated student loan.
Overpayments:
An overpayment is the amount of financial aid that you received for which you are not eligible because you have not attended classes, you have dropped classes during the semester, or have withdrawn from classes. If your reassessment results in an overpayment, you will be notified by mail
If the reassessment is completed before the second portion of your loan is released, the remaining loan portion will be reduced by the amount of the overpayment.