Did you submit the FAFSA for 2017-18 before your mother died? Did she ‘sign’ the FAFSA with her FSA ID? If so, you need to ask your school what to do. They may be able to make the adjustment that the FAFSA is fine, your EFC is $0, but that there will be no Plus loans for this year. If you need to qualify for the additional $4000 loan that an independent student gets, ask the school how to do that. If you/she did NOT file the FAFSA for 2017-18 before she died, DO NOT file it with her information. A parent has to ‘sign’ with a FSA ID and she can’t do that. You need to fill out the FAFSA yourself, as an independent student. It will probably be rejected because you do have a father, and you will have to appeal that you have no contact with him. You appeal to your school.
For the 2016-17 year, probably the only thing that changed was that the Plus loan for the spring was cancelled. The master promissory note would have been cancelled when she died. They could not lend any more money for the spring semester on that note. If they did fund spring semester after 12/31, they will need that money back unless the term started before Jan 10 and they did fund the Plus loan before 12/31.
I submitted it in May, a little bit over 4 months after she died.
So…your school flagged your FAFSA because the SS for your mom was for a person no longer alive.
And you received an updated financial aid award…am I correct about that?
Your EFC was still $0 and you got the full Pell Grant…plus a 6500 Direct Loan…PLUS $4000 in additional Direct Loan money. Is that correct?
You cannot get the Parent Plus Loan for the 2017-2018 school year.
Do you have sufficient aid to cover your college costs?
@twoinanddone is the Plus given out by terms? If this student’s parent took a Plus Loan to pay her costs for the spring term BEFORE the parent died…(bill was likely due in December)…it’s very possible that the spring Plus could have been taken out.
But I think this student said,she did not get the Parent Plus last year.
And she can’t get at all…as it’s a parent Loan.
As far as i know, the Parent PLUS loan was unable to me in 2016-2017.
My SAR report stated that the Social Security Administration had already known of my mother’s death.
I still got the maximum, minus some fees because I had declared independent
Again…are your college costs covered?
I notified my school’s financial aid department that my mother was dead a few days after I got the SAR report.
I do have sufficient aid, but I’ll go and request anymore that I need Monday.
I didn’t get any additional $4K in loans.
Federal loans are awarded by the year, but funded by the term. If there was a parent Plus loan for 2106-17, most likely half was awarded and funded in the fall (although the parent doesn’t have to take the entire amount that’s approved) and half would have been funded in the spring. If the student doesn’t go to school in the spring, the parent can’t have that money. I don’t know if the rule is the same as for the Stafford loan that the loan can’t be funded more than 10 days before the start of the school year, but assuming it is, it would have had to be funded before the mother died. Schools issue bills in December for the Jan term, but the loans and grants aren’t funded until 10 days before the term starts. No lender can make a loan once the borrower has died. HELOCs, credit cards, lines of credit are all cut off on the day of death. A bank has 10 days to clear checks, but the checks had to have been written (obviously) before death. Even SS payments and pensions are adjusted based on date of death.
The OP has to look at each term separately. Fall 2016. Spring 2017. Fall 2017. They’ll all be different because of her mother’s death on 12/31.
@kelsmom might be able to answer what to do about the FAFSA filed incorrectly in May 2017 for the 2017-18 school year. It sounds like the school is making corrections to it, granting an override to independent status. If so, no parental information is needed. Assuming the student had little or no income and assets, the EFC should remain $0, Pell and loans should remain available.
As an independent student, you can take an additional $4000 in loans. BUT if you have yoir costs covered…why would you want to do that.
But if you need to…ask your financial aid office about this. They will advise you.
Yes, my aid package is fine for this year.
I was intending on moving near my campus.
As far as the FAFSA being submitted incorrectly, I really need an honest answer on that one.
It’s pretty simple. If you filed the 2017-2018 FAFSA in May 2017 using your mother’s data, and your mother died in December, 2016, the FAFSA was completed incorrectly.
What about if I submitted that very incorrect FAFSA (my EFC is 0, I declared independent but no word from financial aid yet) and didn’t make any changes to it?
Your school can make changes to the FAFSA if they know the information is incorrect. It sounds like that is what they are doing.
Re: the Fafsa, I believe OP is worried about being charged with fraud. I highly doubt it. If this thread is indication, you were massively confused by dates when she applied. Stay on good terms with your college FA folks.
OP, separate from the aid issues. Someone needs to handle any estate assets and taxes. When any Parent Plus loan (already disbursed/money paid to the college) is forgiven, her estate should receive a 1099R which shows the taxable amount discharged. If the college did receive any PP monies for you, just be sure your sister understands this and looks into it.
Sorry for your loss and the confusing situation.
Also, yes the college can make revisions. You need to confirm they are. In my experience, later you get some notice from Fafsa of what has been changed.
The PP loans weren’t available to me until this year, and I had no prior knowledge of it.