<p>Got my son into college. Now the challenge is filling out the FAFSA form. His main income is social security which, as I understand it, we don't have to claim. He does have a job but only works 2 nights a week. He made a grand total of $248 last year. I don't think he even has to file a tax return since they didn't take anything out except social security and medicare. Will checking the "Do not plan to file" box hurt him in the long run? The way it looks now the form will show him as having no income. The only asset is his checking account and that's not much.</p>
<p>It doesn't make any difference one way or the other. If he doesn't file, he has to claim that income just the same. He will state that he does not file, and he will claim his income under untaxed "other" income. He won't be penalized for filing/not filing.</p>
<p>Just got notification that the grants awarded will cover tuition and possibly books. He also qualifies for loans but I don’t think we are going there since he has no resources to repay. We have to decide to accept or decline awards. Should we decline the loans? His SS will cover housing costs for the time being and there didn’t appear to be any additional monies for off campus housing. I don’t want to hurt his SS and Medicaid. I am going to contact League for Human Dignity to see if there is any additional help available. I just bought him a laptop so he can be at least connected for basic things.</p>
<p>I am so appreciative for the help I have received. I don’t know what I would do without it.</p>
<p>I am so glad things are working out for him! Does the school have an Office of Disability Services? They would be a wonderful resource to get in touch with now.</p>
<p>He is working through Disability Services and they have been wonderful. He got priority registration which took a whole lot of stress off the process. I told him to contact them about financial aid info but will make sure he contacts them now. I just got the aid notification today so doesn’t know what is going on. He is so excited about his classes and getting a new start. I just wish he could begin tomorrow. You are a true godsend!!! I just hope I can help someone the same way you do. I do provide assistance for the parents of my students and former students on applying for SS and jumping through the hoops. We need to get together and write a book about all of this!!</p>
<p>I keep saying I’m going to write a book!</p>
<p>You asked about declining the loans. Unless your school requires you to either accept or decline at this time, you might want to just leave them in offered status. If you decline, you’ll have to fill out a form to reinstate them if you find that you need them later. If you leave them in offered status, you can just accept & complete the steps if you do end up needing to borrow. But it’s not that hard to reinstate if you need to - so it won’t really hurt to decline for now. I agree that he shouldn’t borrow if he doesn’t have to.</p>
<p>I just recently have found out with i am eligible for SSI, and i have been wanting to go back to college since i left, but havnt been able to afford it. If i start collecting disablility, do these new changes mean it would be easier and cheaper for me to go back? Please Help</p>
<p>I am no expert but when you fill out the FAFSA you do not have to claim any income you get from SSI. In my son’s case it was very beneficial because that is his only source of income. This enabled him to be eligible for a large amount of financial aid. In fact we have had no out of pocket expenses for this year. Keep in mind that he is 42 and is not a dependent.</p>
<p>Studslug12, how old are you? What is your family income (approximately)? Those are important questions. The SSI will not figure into your income for FAFSA purposes, which is nice. However, the more relevant questions involve income, assets, family size, number in college.</p>
<p>Hi! my first post! I have some questions regarding the FAFSA and social security. Husband is retired and receiving social security and since son is high school senior/17 is also receiving some monthly income…Son’s will of course stop coming upon grad from high school so loss of “income”. Does our son’s portion go under his income on the FAFSA or not at all? Only a portion of husband’s ss is untaxed so the rest was included in our taxes last year (and in previous)… reading the prior posts it sounded like none of it is included in the FAFSA… sorry I am confused.</p>
<p>I am self employed… it is only me so no employees. A direct service professional business that unfortunatly with this economy I am $10,000 less than last year. It is my understanding that once FAFSA is submitted at some point I need to alert colleges that our income will actually be less than reported for current year given the trend. Additionally, our septic/leech line/new tank system has to be redone! $10-12,000. Would this be something to also provide notification about. I have read about notifiying if large medical bills… it isn’t like we decided to buy a new car just for fun… can’t live with messed up septic/not a choice expense. thanks for any input.</p>
<p>Any part of your husbands SS that is taxed and included in the AGI will have to be reported on FAFSA. The untaxed part will not have to be reported.</p>
<p>Back when my daughter started college she did have to report her SS income on FAFSA but we were able to get a special circumstances adjustment for loss of benefits as it stopped once she graduated high school. The rules changed last year to where untaxed SS income is not reported so I think your son would not report it at all.</p>
<p>You can tell the school about the reduction in income and see if they are willing to make an adjustment. That is at their discretion. </p>
<p>I honestly don’t *think *your septic system would be something they would make an adjustment for. They have to follow fairly strict guidelines and I would be very surprised if they would be willing to make an adjustment for repairs to your home (which is an asset that is not reportable for FAFSA purposes so). However I am not a financial aid officer so I would suggest you ask the school. The worst they can say is no! If they say yes do report back and let us know.</p>
<p>Thanks so much for responding. I will be calling UCSB financial aid office and ask about the septic and decreased income… I’ll report back in case this info helps anyone else.</p>
<p>I’ve got the part about not having to report SSI. Do we have to declare the amount of student aid received this past school year as income?</p>
<p>If the student received work study income, that would be on a W2 and be reported normally.</p>
<p>If you are talking about scholarships and grants reported on a 1098T, you report the amount of grants given in excess of the tuition paid. So, scholarship box minus tuition box. You could also choose to track your expense paid yourself and use that number if it is better for you (the school may or may not count spring bills charged in Dec in the one year or the other)</p>
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<p>You only report taxable scholarships/grants that are included in the AGI.</p>
<p>If there are taxable scholarships/grants that have been reported on a tax return then those will be included in the AGI that is reported on FAFSA. In that case you report the scholarship/grant amounts included in the AGI in the appropriate FAFSA question so that they will be deducted from the AGI by the EFC formula before it calculates the EFC. That way they do not negatively impact the EFC. But if the student did not do (and was not required to do) a tax return then you do not report the scholarships/grants on FAFSA. </p>
<p>For instance if the student had to do a tax return and the AGI is $10,000 of which $4,000 is taxable scholarships/grants then on FAFSA they would report the AGI of $10,000 then in the question about taxable scholarships/grants included in the AGI they would report the $4000. The formula would then reduce the AGI by $4000, to $6000, before calculating the EFC. But if the taxable scholarships/grants are $4000 and the student has no other income then he does not have enough income to be required to have to do a tax return, there is no student AGI to report on FAFSA, so the scholarships/grants are not reported anywhere on FAFSA.</p>
<p>Thanks for the information. Sometimes it gets confusing. We got the 1098-T but didn’t what to do. I really don’t want to mess up his chances for continuing assistance.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the info. You guys seem knowledgeable. So i am a new memeber and a mom of twin boy/girl 2010 college freshmans. My kids have applied to 17 schools in total. Two schools selected our fasfa for verification. I am having trouble determining between other untaxed income… ie disability… My husband is on a double lung transplant list due to his cystic fibrosis. He is unable to work and collects social security /disaibility benefits. We reported his taxed portion and untaxed portion on our tax return. The fasfa does not ask for the breakdown just the total gross income… my income n his taxable portion of ss…this verification form is asking for untaxed income ie… w/comp or disabilty…“do not include social security benefits”. Am right in thinking that the disability is different than the disabilty / social security he currently receives? This stuff is so darn confusing and I hate to make a costly mistake and lose much deserved help. Also I am to understand that the kids will lose the little social security they recieve as soon as they graduate high school? Even though they remain full time college students? Does the amount that they take from the kids when they graduate revert to the main social security collector my husband? Sorry this is such a long post and with so many questions…life is pretty complicated now and any resource on advice is appreciated.
I am very proud of my kids to get themselves into the most competitive sunys in the new york system… just trying to figure out how to pay for it. :)</p>
<p>I don’t have experience with disability SS payments but my husband is retired and drawing his SS pension. My kids got SS payments that stopped when they turned 18 (or graduated HS which was a couple of months later for one of them). The payments the kids got were additional on top of the SS payments my husband was receiving.So once they stopped that was the end of that additional money. Nothing “reverted” to my husband because nothing was ever taken from him, it was money additional to the money he was eligible for.</p>
<p>I am guessing that the disability income your kids get will be the same as the SS pension income and will be gone once your kids turn 18 or graduate HS.</p>