GFAL for teachers

Only ‘til December

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, November 15, (PIA)—Public school teachers will only have until the end of December before the window of opportunity to clean up their financial mess, slams shut on them.

Good enough though, because for other non-Department of Education (DepED) government employees, that same window remains open until July of next year. 

This, according to Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) Bohol information Officer Sherwin Viva, at the recent Kapihan sa PIA, aired live over DyTR and on delayed cast at PIA Bohol Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Viva came to the invitation and the need to wave the final offer as the balance-transfer and debt consolidation facility for DepEd will only be until December 27, to be precise.

Viva talked about the GSIS Financial Assistance Fund (GFAL) which the state pension fund has opened as fiscal aid window featuring its loan transfer and consolidation program, initially for DepEd teachers and workers and now for other government employees, to help them wipe out their high interest hefty amortization loans.

Viva, who added, the program was initially dangled for public school teachers with loans from other financial and lending institutions, went on saying that this is a one-shot chance refinancing scheme in payment for loans from duly agency-accredited institutions and would not be availed twice. 

Initially offered to DepEd employees in May of 2018, GFAL was envisioned to improve their financial capacity, so it allows them to take a second hard look at their spending habits and correct it.

If they are buried in debts, that means they are spending beyond their means, Viva pointed out, using GSIS’s arguments.

With GFAL, we help them assess their financial situation through loan evaluation and counseling in the hope of their effectively managing their money, he summed.  

GFA does this by buying-out that outstanding loans with lending institutions are paid off through a scheme that offers significantly lower interest and longer periods, Viva explained.

“Teachers GSIS members who have outstanding loans from lending institutions and government financial establishments and cooperatives can apply for a loan from the pension fund to pay-off for their obligations, and increase their take-home money,” he added.

Teachers and government employees have been vulnerable to the irresistible chance to have bulky cash but sinks them deeper in debt, that a buy-out scheme as a means to get them back up with a clean slate to start managing whatever they have sounds brilliant, a financial adviser noted.

GFALs 6% nominal interest rate is much lower than those offered by lending institutions and banks, and the relatively long payment terms would assure that teachers with small take home money can now go home with fatter pockets.

The loan, which has a lower interest rate to be repaid in six years, will be directly paid to the lending institutions, while with a half a mil for every individual portfolio available, the borrower can have some more funds to settle for other obligations, through a Top-Up option, Viva said.

According to the state pension fund information officer, the top-up facility keeps the borrowers from going back to the same moneyless state after they used their loans to clear up their loans that are using up all their take home pay.

He also pointed out that as provided by the law on retention as by the General Appropriations Act, employees shall have a minimum take home not lesser than P5,000,00 after the deductions.  

Qualified in the loan are active regular or special members of the GSIS with permanent status of appointment with 3 years of pain premiums.

Government employees who have still some reserved questions, can visit the GSIS Office in Bohol, at the CPG north Avenue near the Tagbilaran City Ice Plant, for questions and other inquiries. (rahc/PIA_7/Bohol)

WINDOW CLOSING. As GFAL is only a single shot to help rescue teachers from their financial mires, GSIS information Officer Sherwin Viva urges DepED workers to grab the chance before the debt consolidation and balance transfer facility slams on them in December. (rahc/PIA_7/Bohol)