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Student loan borrowers may apply for deferment of loan repayment if they have difficulties in repaying the loans due to further studies on full-time courses, financial hardship or serious illness. Application for deferment of loan repayment is only applicable to the total amount due for settlement, which may comprise administrative fee(s), if any, surcharge(s), if any, interest(s) and outstanding principal(s). Applications for deferment of loan repayment will be considered on its merits. Upon approval, the deferred grant/ loan will be repaid on a revised schedule or on any other terms as decided by SFO.

For the Non-means-tested Loan Scheme for Full-time Tertiary Students (NLSFT), the Non-means-tested Loan Scheme for Post-secondary Students (NLSPS) and the Extended Non-means-tested Loan Scheme (ENLS), deferment interest will be charged on the approved deferment period. The deferred loan will be repaid on a revised schedule with fewer numbers of instalments and at a larger amount. Interest accrued during the deferment period will be capitalized and form part of the outstanding principal for the calculation of the instalment amount to be repaid in the remaining instalments. In addition, for deferment of more than 12 calendar months, the interest accrued during the deferment period will be capitalized once every 12 calendar months.

Loan recipients who have been granted approval for deferment of the NLSFT / NLSPS / ENLS loan(s) repayment are still required to pay for annual administrative fee during the period of deferment which is chargeable for any loan account with unsettled balance on 1 December every year until the loan and interest accrued thereon are fully repaid.

To alleviate the financial burden of student loan borrowers with proven repayment difficulties, loan borrowers who have been granted approval for deferment of loan repayment are eligible for interest-free deferment for the approved deferment period and extension of their entire standard repayment period, subject to a maximum of two years (i.e. the entire repayment period may be up to 17 years).

Loan borrowers who have previously benefited in full and exhausted the 2-year interest-free extended repayment period are not eligible for the above-mentioned relaxed deferment arrangement.

Application for deferment of loan repayment should be submitted in writing. Relevant application forms are available at your institution. You may also download the application form concerned from SFO's Homepage. You should fill in either one of the following application forms for deferment of loan repayment depending on the current repayment status of your loan account(s) under application -

• For Financial Hardship/Illness
  • without overdue instalment or with one overdue quarterly instalment / five consecutive overdue monthly instalments in all your loan account(s) under application
  • Others
• For Full-time Studies
  • without overdue instalment or with one overdue quarterly instalment / five consecutive overdue monthly instalments in all your loan account(s) under application
  • Others