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Electronic Commonwealth Assistance Form (ECAF)

Overview

ECAF is a Student Connect application that enables students to complete the HECS-HELP/Commonwealth supported place and FEE-HELP Commonwealth Assistance Form appropriate for their Course Attempt either directly through the application or via the Government eCAF Portal (depending on whether the institution has configured the Government eCAF Portal integration on the Maintain eCAF Configuration form (ENRF02A0)).

The Commonwealth Assistance Forms are available to eligible students as part of the online self enrolment process or via the ECAF option in the Student Connect menu:

• In order to display during Self Enrolment, the STUDSTATUS step must be recorded for the WEB Enrolment Method Type for the student's Enrolment Category in the Maintain Enrolment Category Procedure Detail form (ENRF0192) and Maintain Enrolment Category Procedure Step Elements form (ENRF0193).
  
• When the ECAF item is selected from the menu, a check is made whether the student has two or more courses with a status of ENROLLED, INACTIVE or INTERMIT. If so, it displays a course list for the student to select the required course and then continues with the rest of the processing.

If a student does not have the appropriate citizenship and a verified USI, their access to this application is blocked. A student is also prevented from accessing the eCAF if they haven't satisfied the minimum Pass-Rate requirement for HELP, i.e. the Failed Pass-Rate check box has been set in the Record Enrolments form (ENRF3000). A message is displayed stating that 'According to our records, you have not passed the minimum pass-rate requirement to remain eligible for HELP. If this is incorrect, please contact your institution.'

Access to the ECAF forms is affected by the loan scheme associated with the Fee Category for a student's course. The FEE-HELP and HECS-HELP loan schemes are available. The system determines the appropriate form of Commonwealth Assistance to display to the student. If the user is a VET FEE-HELP student then a message is displayed stating that 'According to our records, you are not required to fill in an eCAF. If this is incorrect please contact your Institution.'

Note: The SA-HELP eCAF for a loan for the Student Service and Amenities fees is available via the SA-HELP online applications.

eCAF Details

• The student's personal and course details are pre-populated and cannot be updated in this application.
• The citizenship status is pre-selected with the value recorded in the Maintain Person Statistical Details form (ENRF3060).
• The student answers questions related to their citizenship and their eligibility is determined by their answers to these questions. Note: The ECAF references the 'Confirmed NZ Help Eligible' indicator in ENRF3060 to determine if the check box belonging to the question for further New Zealand criteria is enabled or disabled. This validation can be removed from the eCAF and details about what changes are required to the eCAF template to do this are included in the template itself.
• Where a student's responses indicate that they are not eligible, then a message to this effect is displayed.

eCAF Submission

The ECAF application provides different functionality depending on whether the institution has configured Callista SMS to enable eCAF submission via the ECAF application or the Government eCAF Portal.

eCAF submission via ECAF application

The following functionality is available if the institution has NOT configured the Government eCAF Portal integration for the eCAF Type (HECS-HELP/FEE-HELP) in ENRF02A0.

• The ECAF screens are modelled on the Government online screens for each type of Commonwealth assistance.
  
• Tax File Numbers (TFN)
  • HELP Eligible students must either record their TFN or provide a Certificate of Application for a TFN.
  • Tax file numbers submitted in this application will have the TFN recorded in the Student eCAF Completion table and also the Student Course HECS Option table.
  • If a student indicates that they can supply a Certificate of Application for a TFN, the following message displays: 'You must submit a photo or scanned copy of your Certificate as proof that you have applied for a TFN. You must advise your provider of your TFN within 21 days of receiving it'. The Certificate can be provided using the Upload document functionality described below.
• Once the student submits the eCAF, the Student Status will be derived and applied to the Student Course Attempt, which can be viewed and maintained in the Record Student Status form (ENRF3110).

Upload document functionality

• The PECXTUPLD application is embedded in the ECAF application in Student Connect.
• This application includes an Upload button. The student selects this button to upload the document (i.e. a file) into Callista SMS against the student’s Person ID. (Once successfully uploaded, the document can be viewed in the View Electronic Documents form (GENF0150) for the student.)
• Only one file can be uploaded - the student cannot upload multiple files.
• The following types of files can be uploaded:  JPG, JPEG, GIF, PDF, RTF, TIF, TIFF, PNG.
• The filename must not be longer than 200 characters.
• The file size must be no greater than the size predefined by the institution against the Document Type in the Maintain Document Type form (GENF0100), and no greater than 2000MB.
• A record for the uploaded document is inserted into the Document table in Callista SMS and has a Document Type mapped to the System Document Type of TFN-CERT in GENF0100.
• Once a file is uploaded, the name of the file is displayed as: ‘<filename>.<file extension>’, and a Delete button is displayed below the uploaded file. This Delete option is only available while the eCAF remains unsubmitted.

eCAF submission via Government eCAF Portal

The following functionality is available if the institution has configured the Government eCAF Portal integration for the eCAF Type (HECS-HELP/FEE-HELP/FEE-HLP-NU) in ENRF02A0. Note: FEE-HLP-NU is only available through the Government eCAF Portal integration.

• The student first submits their enrolment record in the ECAF application.
• The record will then be exported to the Government eCAF Portal, either immediately or via the next batch run of the Export HE eCAF Details job (STAJ2080) (depending on the configuration in ENRF02A0).
• The student will receive an invitation email from the Government eCAF Portal with login details.
• Once the student has submitted the eCAF on the Government eCAF Portal, the eCAF record will be imported, either immediately or via the next batch run of the Import HE eCAF Details job (STAJ2090) (depending on the configuration in ENRF02A0).
• The Student Status will be derived and applied to the Student Course Attempt, which can be viewed and maintained in ENRF3110.
• If the student has provided a Certificate of Application for a TFN, this document will also be imported and available in GENF0150.
• A student can revise a submitted eCAF through the ECAF application by selecting the Revise button if the Census Date for the application has not yet passed.

Details of the eCAF record can be viewed in the Maintain eCAF Transaction Detail form (ENRF3700).

If the eCAF record has a Government eCAF status of Deleted or Expired, or over 6 months has passed since the Census Date, students will be given the option to submit another eCAF.

Last Modified on 20 September, 2023 4:49 PM

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