Notice #735 – Saskatchewan Advantage Grant for Education Savings (SAGES) suspension period
On this page
Information bulletin
Number: CESP/PCEE-2017/18-004-735
Date: September 20, 2017
Subject: Saskatchewan Advantage Grant for Education Savings (SAGES) suspension period
Previous bulletins
This notice follows information bulletins #711, dated March 23, 2017 and #722, dated June 12, 2017, regarding the suspension of the SAGES.
Purpose
This information bulletin is to inform Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP) promoters of the details surrounding the upcoming temporary suspension of the Saskatchewan Advantage Grant for Education Savings (SAGES).
Background
On March 22, 2017, the Government of Saskatchewan announced a temporary suspension of SAGES payments into RESPs effective January 1, 2018. You will find the related press release on the government of Saskatchewan web page.
Key dates
- SAGES will not be paid during the suspension period on contributions made to an RESP after December 31, 2017
- New Promoters interested in offering SAGES must have completed the entire enrolment process by December 31, 2017
- As of January 1, 2018, subscribers and promoters will no longer have up to three years to request and submit SAGES requests
- The last day to request a manual intervention for a transfer from a non-offering Promoter is September 30, 2017
Error code 7001
Effective as of the February 2018 processing period, when a second SAGES request is received for a contribution that previously had a successfully processed SAGES request, the second request will receive an error code 7001. This will prevent SAGES amounts already received in an RESP from being reclaimed by Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC).
Manual intervention requests
Promoters must submit their requests, via email at the address below, no later than September 30, 2017. All requests received after that date will not be actioned. Please note that, when submitting a request for a manual intervention, promoters are required to provide ESDC with the residency date and the application signature date. ESDC does not have access to this information, which is found on the application forms.
Additionally, promoters are expected to verify the following information:
- Does the subscriber wish to request SAGES on contributions made at the previous promoter?
- Are there any eligible contributions made at the previous promoter?
- An eligible contribution must have occurred after 2013. Additionally, the contribution must have been made for a beneficiary prior to the end of the calendar year the beneficiary reached the age of 17
- Was the request for retroactive SAGES payment(s) made within three years of the SAGES application signature date?
- Are there any eligible SAGES amounts which can be paid on the transactions?
- For example, if the amount of SAGES in the RESP is already the maximum amount of SAGES available to the beneficiary, then no new SAGES can be paid to that beneficiary
- Was the previous promoter an offering promoter?
- A manual intervention should only be done to over-ride system limitations. As such, if the request can be made directly from the promoter which received the contributions, a manual intervention will not be done
Lists of beneficiaries that have not been verified will be returned to the respective promoter in order for proper verification to be completed.
Contact us
If you have any questions regarding this information bulletin, please contact us by e-mail at cesp-pcee@hrsdc-rhdcc.gc.ca or call at 1-888-276-3624. Our hours of operation are from 8:00 to 17:00 Eastern Time.
Page details
- Date modified: