2023-07-16 22:48:51
The Icetex began to materialize one of the proposals that had begun to be outlined from the last government: to enable educational credit lines with contingent payment on income. This means that the salaries of the beneficiaries will be taken into account to set the value of their contributions.
The initiative was included in the current Government Development Plan, a decision that will allow the financial entity to launch the first 1,000 educational loans under this payment method.
According to the Ministry of Education in a press release, this initiative shows that Icetex will implement a “model that reflects the evolution of credit towards a more human scheme, which is developed according to the situation of the beneficiary and understanding the difficulties of this person”.
“The scheme portrays a more human credit, with better conditions that respond to the real needs of the beneficiary; that is to say, a social credit”, said Toro about the new scheme of the financial entity.
It is worth saying that although some aspects such as socioeconomic stratum, ethnicity or different social factors are currently taken into account (for example, if students are victims of the conflict), when setting the interest rates applied to them to beneficiaries, their monthly income is not included in that calculation.
Mauricio Toro, president of Icetex, said that they want the credits to meet the needs of the students. | Photo: Guillermo Torres
The new payment method will apply to students who obtain new credits with Icetex. As explained by the Ministry of Education in its statement, these people will be able to access a deduction and withholding proportional to their income as long as their salary is higher than a current legal monthly minimum wage (SMMLV).
In turn, he made it clear that this deduction may not be greater than 20% of income. That is, if a person receives a salary of one million pesos, the Icetex fee may not exceed 200,000 pesos.
Icetex seeks that the new income-contingent payment model be applied gradually. | Photo: Andersen Ross Photography Inc
And what would happen if the people who assumed an educational loan under this modality do not have a job or have an income of less than a minimum wage? In these cases, the Ministry of Education asserted that “they will not have to make any payment, they will not go into arrears with their credit, nor will they be reported in information centers.”
Likewise, they indicated that there will also be greater flexibility in the loan amortization period, which refers to the moment in which students graduate and must pay the rest of their loan.
According to the statement, this period may be extended for up to 20 years after the students have completed the training process they financed. And if after that period they have not paid the totality of what they owed, the debt will be terminated.
“The mechanism, which also does not require a co-debtor, is established through direct deduction and withholding of the beneficiaries’ income, withdrawing procedures to transfer them to their employers,” said the Ministry of Education.
Students who take advantage of this new payment method will not need co-signers. | Photo: FatCamera
Additionally, that ministerial portfolio indicated that Icetex is working jointly with Dian in order to advance “a technical regulation process for the implementation of the collection monitoring system” of this income-contingent payment mechanism.
“In this way, ICETEX becomes a more humane entity that offers social credit that seeks to accompany Colombians from all regions of the country in the fulfillment and development of their life projects,” the Ministry of Education concluded in its statement. .
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