THEVOICE |

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n an attempt to curb fraud,

provincial and federal chang-

es to student loan agreements

have added an extra hurdle
for students to access loans.

According to StudentAid BC’s
website, Notice of Tax Assessment
forms from the Canada Revenue
Agency are no longer accepted as
secondary identification when pre-
senting loan agreements to desig-
nated Canada Post offices. That’s
because tax assessments no longer
include a citizen's full Social Insur-
ance Number.

Rodney Porter, communica-
tions director for B.C.’s Ministry
of Advanced Education, Skills and
‘Training, said in an email the only
accepted forms for verifying people
are a physical SIN card or official

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THURSDAY, NOV. 23, 2017 |

Government of Canada documents.
The documents include: a Ca-
nadian Pension Plan statement of
contributions, temporary SIN cards
or a SIN confirmation letter from
Service Canada, all of which require
extra documentation to access.

Porter said the changes came into
effect in October 2017 after Em-
ployment and Social Development
Canada notified the province of the
CRA’s change in procedure, adding
that the changes were introduced to
validate a person’s identity.

“This avoids frauds by ensuring
the money goes to the right per-
son,” Porter said.

In an email to The Voice, Dave
Morgan, a CRA representative,
said, “The measure was adopted
to safeguard the confidentiality of
taxpayer information,” but did not
go into detail whether student loan

EDITOR SASALAKIC

fraud was a problem or how preva-
lent of a problem it was to prompt
procedure changes at the agency
and other federal and provincial
authorities.

Morgan added that it allowed
for easy identification of tax corre-
spondence. However, for some the
changes added new hurdles to at-
taining student loans.

Kat Cruz, a third-year forensics
and anthropology student at Lan-
gara, said these changes are too
cumbersome for students who do
not have their SIN readily available.

“Why are [they] making it hard
for someone to get a student loan
when [they're] complaining that
we're the future and all that jazz,”
said Cruz said.

“It's unreasonable, not a lot of
people have the resources to actu-
ally get it or the time.”

Atlarge

Loans subject to new rules

Students looking to obtain tuition funding cant use tax forms as [ID anymore

By MYRA DIONNE
uy IDENTITY DOCUMENTS ACCEPTED

AT CANADA POST

1. Social Insurance Number

An official SIN card or a SIN confirmation letter are the best options. Alter-

natively, a copy of an official Government of Canada
your social insurance number is also acceptable.

2. Photo ID

This is an official government-issued photo identification, such as a driver's

license, B.C. identification card or passport.

3. Void Cheque

This is a personal cheque from the bank that includes the account number.
Some banks and credit unions will print forms specifically designed for
student loan agreements. The bank or credit union can help complete the

electronic funds transfer section of the agreement.

document that includes

SOURCE: STUDENTAIDBC.CA

fT) @SCfSR GB @sask_sci_rel (6) @sask.scienceandreligion