Community Service

Starting community service is a huge step into your profession. After the excitement of getting your placements, to the stress of your final exam, to the frustration of stepping into government service. Here are a few things to remember as you start your community service journey. 

Make contact with your placement

When you get your placement it is a good idea to contact the HR department. Be prepared for them to say they have no idea of who has been allocated to them. Communication inside government departments is slow at times – so most likely when you contact them that is the first time they are finding out who is being place at that location. This is especially true if you call them within the first few weeks. Don’t panic, just keep calling them every week or two. Remember to leave your contact details with them and then you should start getting these documents ready: Certified copies of your ID, your degree or proof of completion, HPCSA registration as a Community Service Officer, Proof of Tax Registration and Z56 Banking forms (which you can get at the HR department). 

Be prepared for silence from your placement

For some of you will be unable to get into contact with the person you need to for your placement. The best way around this is to use the Facebook groups for comserves, or to get into contact with your professional organisation in that area. Doing this you can get into contact with the current permanents or comserves at your placement who will be able to help you along a bit faster (or at least assure you that your messages are going to the right place).

HPCSA registration

After passing and you have proof thereof you need to either send your documents to the HPCSA via courier or go to them physically. You then need to register with them as a community service officer and get a certificate of registration. HPCSA does try to be present in some form at most of the universities during the end of the year and this makes it much easier to get these documents. This is usually the one part that trips people up as you need to have this sorted by the 1^st of January and then have to pay again in March to ensure you are registered for the rest of the year. The HPCSA’s payment cycle runs from April to March, so for the first 3 months you usually pay a pro-rata fee and then by the 31st of March a full fee. You will be able to get these fees from HPCSA directly.

Finding a place to live for the year

Those people placed in places that are popular holiday destinations usually have a tough time to organise a place to rent so late in the year. This usually calms down a bit in the second week of January. Others might not know which places they would like to live in their new environment. Calling the local estate agencies or current comserves is a good idea. The estate agencies might know of a few places left open and the current comserves have to leave on the 31^st. If you are renting a place please ensure you have a contract that is signed – valid proof of residence is important for getting any service that requires credit and a contract that is signed and shows the period of agreement is the easiest way to do this. This contract is also what spells out your responsibilities in terms of your living space. You can get a generic “Lease Agreement” from places like CNA if the lessor doesn’t provide you with one. These aren’t ironclad but they at least give you some idea of both parties’ responsibilities. The most important part is to take a video or pictures of the whole space before you move in and email it to the estate agent or lessor along with a list of things that are not in perfect shape. Every year there are multiple stories of comserves not getting their deposits back because they can’t prove that something was broken when they moved in. This is really important and can easily cost you a few thousand rand at the end of the year. Another easy thing to miss is that by law your deposit must be held for you in an interest bearing account until you move out. 

The credit card question

This one is from personal experience. If you are not absolutely sure that you can be disciplined with a credit card – just don’t get one. The banks will love to offer you these cards or overdrafts as government employees get regular salaries and are perceived as low risk. They will offer you ridiculous limits on these high interest rate types of debt. Stay away from this unless you can be really disciplined about using it. Reckless debt creates a lot of obstacles for you down the road – especially if you think you can take the two years to pay back any money you owe but you are only certain of one year of employment. From personal experience rather get a store account with a limit you can always pay back after one month. This will also build a solid credit history.

Been there, done that

Remember that you have passed your exams and that you are now a health professional. This year is basically a year of paid service to the country. The only requisite for completing it is completing a year of employment. You have been trained to do your job and this is the year you get to spread your wings a bit. You will not know everything – but you will learn a lot. Make use of all the professionals at your placement. You can learn a lot from your more experienced colleagues across all disciplines. If you don’t know how to do something, just ask! If there is no one at your placement that can help you then you can turn to other local health institutions or reach out through Facebook. You are not alone.

Invest in something

It is a good idea to start contributing towards a retirement annuity or pension fund from the day you start working. This sounds very boring, but in comserve you will earn enough that you can put a little bit away each month. Be it R500 or R15000 it will help you further down the road. You also get a tax break for this, so for now this is a very effective way of saving. If you want to have access to your savings then you can save into a Tax-free savings account. A year of contributing towards a retirement type of fund will make a lot of difference – this gets more pronounced as the years pass. But putting something aside for retirement is not the only investment you can make. Post-graduate studies, learning a new language or a once-in-a-lifetime trip to some exotic location are just a few examples of investments that can’t be measured in money but that might require some saved up cash up-front. It is a good idea to talk to someone you trust about this, or, if you don’t know anyone savvy enough, speak to a financial adviser.

Build a network

Make some time to go the meet-and-greet that your local organisation has at the start of the year. This will immediately broaden your network of friends in your area. If you have a large enough group make the time to organise a get-together for the people at your hospital. A braai or dinner somewhere makes it much easier to get to know each other. Don’t restrict yourself to the public service – make contact with local practices and get to know the owners – these are people that might be able to offer you employment the following year.

That 37%

At the start of the year you will have to choose between if you want to receive benefits or a 37% increase in your salary in lieu of benefits. If you choose benefits then the government will subsidise your medical aid cover (which has to be GEMS) and pension contributions. If you have to be in public service for a few years (like if you have a bursary) then this is a good option. If you don’t plan on hanging around in government then it is a better idea to take the 37% increase. This means you get more cash but you are responsible for your own pension fund and medical aid contributions. Some professions in some provinces don’t give you a choice – either you have to take it or you do not have the choice to take it. Either choice is fine and whatever this decision this will only last one year. If you stay longer in public service you do not get a choice and you will be moved over benefits. No need to agonise over this decision.

Taxes

Your tax will be deducted from your pay every month. Around July the tax season opens and you will be able to claim back the tax that was deducted in January and February. You might need to go to the SARS office the first time you want to eFile as they would want to verify your address and banking details (remember that rental contract). This doesn’t take too long and once it is done you shouldn’t have to do it again unless your details change. Remember to take you ID, banking details and proof of address with you.

First month’s expenses

You will get paid on the last working day of the month. This means that you still need to survive for the first month of comserve. Remember to budget so that you can survive up to the end of the month. You will most likely be dependent on your previous savings or family to survive the first month and put down a deposit on a place to live. January tends to be one of those long months as the holiday season is full of expenses so make sure to budget carefully. 

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Community service is a great year and though there are usually a few administrative challenges at the start you should enjoy it. A government post at this point in our country is about as secure as you can get in our current political and economic climate. Make the most of it. Good luck!

Have any questions not answered in this above or ideas how to improve this list? Let me know in the comments below or on our Facebook page.