The Unofficial SMART Scholarship Forum

Was anyone else's January pay significantly less than normal?

Guest141 wrote:Was anyone else's January pay significantly less than normal?

Yes, but they should have emailed you. It should have been 60% today and then they said the rest should come within the next two weeks.

Check your SPAM filter. I pump all my email correspondence through gmail, and it has labeled messages like these as spam on several occasions. Make sure you add the @nps.edu to your address book

Does anyone no why they only can pay 60 percent in Jan. ? Why are they short of money ?

It seems that they have a problem with the monthly stipend .

This does not bode well ...

I think they just made a mistake... and instead of only paying 60% of us they are paying all of us 60%. Remember there was a mistake last spring as well.

Has anyone heard anything about when we're getting the rest of the January pay?

Another gem of the SMART scholarship program, I really hope that we get paid the remaining 40% within two weeks. I had to move from the east coast to the Midwest to start at my new position and I have made a lot of expenses for the move. I know for sure that I will not start getting paid after a week past the first pay period of work, maybe even longer if any problems arise.

Has anyone heard anything yet about when we're getting paid?

Guest wrote:Has anyone heard anything yet about when we're getting paid?

I asked my CA a couple of days ago and they said there was no update yet. :(

I still havent received mine beginning to worry

I haven't been paid either. I'm assuming the same is true for everyone. Sucks.

I wouldn't panic. The huge delay us new people went through after acceptance last year did get resolved, and we did get all our money. It just took a while.

This is bad, of course, but probably more a sign of creaking bureaucratic friction rather than some massive impending doom. If nothing else it'll get you used to how the gub'mint works.

Received this in my inbox:


Dear SMART Participant,

As you know, there has been an unexpected delay in the distribution of funds for the January stipend payments. On Friday 18 January 2013 you received 60% of your stipend with the remaining 40% anticipated to be deposited into your bank account by 1 February. Unfortunately, it is unlikely that payments will go out by the end of this week as previously anticipated. The funding for these payments has already been allocated and approved. We anticipate being able to distribute the payments in the near future.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Sincerely,

The SMART Program Office

Really wish they would be more specific than "in the near future" ...

Last time we heard "near future" was the final notification of awards and it took nearly 3 months.

Last time we had a delayed stipend, we waited three weeks from the original pay date. I remember because my bills were close to late. We all are suffering together :/.. I hope they get the money out very soon!

I don't understand how the payments can be "allocated and approved" ,but not able to be deposited.

I wrote the program office to ask if this would impact our February payment and they have not written back (surprise). Has anyone else tried to get this information?

guest25 wrote:Last time we had a delayed stipend, we waited three weeks from the original pay date. I remember because my bills were close to late. We all are suffering together :/.. I hope they get the money out very soon!

I don't understand how the payments can be "allocated and approved" ,but not able to be deposited.

I think that they're clarifying that our stipends aren't being held for approval because of potential sequestration cuts or financial juggling at the Treasury due to the debt ceiling. What is *actually* causing the delay I would really like to know.

Waking up to the depressing reality that we are not going to get paid today either. This ordeal is really screwing me over financially.

Has anyone asked their CA recently? I feel like they should be updating us more often on this.

Do you think we will get our Feb pay? Or will they be "allocated and approved" but not distributed? Also, I feel like we should be gaining interest on any funds not distributed to us at the agreed upon time.

you should be working on contingecy plans to get through lean times. federal gov't funding is all screwed up because of continuing resolutions and pending sequestration. the SMART money should come, but when and how much the amount of each payment has proven to be unreliable. the golden goose is constipated.

I've been in the program for a little over 2 years. Previously there was only one time we didn't get paid. That time we had a couple days notice, which was followed by frequent updates until we actually got paid 13 days later. During the whole process we were told that a legitimate mistake had been made and I have no reason to believe otherwise.

The problem I have right now is that we have NO IDEA when we're getting the rest of our money and they don't seem to be updating us on this. If it were me in charge, out of mere compassion for the situation I would give daily updates.

not knowing when and how much the next payment will be is stressful. that is our version of the uncertainty factor that is affecting businesses and gov't. i don't know if getting a daily email saying "we don't know when we can send money" would be helpful. it would be nice to know what the hold up is though.

i don't see this getting better any time soon.

I spoke to my CA last week, and I was told the money had been sent to ASEE and that once they got it, it would still be about 2-3 business days before it hit our accounts. I emailed my CA again yesterday, and as of yesterday morning Pacific Time, ASEE had yet to receive the money and the SPO was checking on it several times daily, as they understood how important it was. So, according to my conversations with my CA, it's not the SPO, it's not ASEE, it's other people that are messing with it.