ANY FAMILY WHO NEEDS TO FILE THE FAFSA APPLICATION FOR FA- BE AWARE.
"On March 3, families logging onto the website for federal aid found that a key component of the online application had stopped functioning.
The component, known as the Data Retrieval Tool, automatically fills in a Fafsa application with information from an applicant’s tax return, via a data connection with the Internal Revenue Service. Without the tool, applicants have to transcribe tax information from their old returns or order tax transcripts from the I.R.S. (which can take several weeks)."
"Completing the Fafsa is now going to require more legwork, more paperwork and more time, and applicants will be putting themselves in a difficult position if they wait until the last minute to apply.
Fafsas completed without using the data tool are more likely to be chosen for “verification,” an audit that requires applicants to submit additional paperwork to prove that their tax information is accurate. This further slows the process. The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators has asked the Department of Education to scale back verification requirements given the data tool outage."
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/13/upshot/a-fumble-on-a-key-fafsa-tool-and-a-failure-to-communicate.html?module=WatchingPortal®ion=c-column-middle-span-region&pgType=Homepage&action=click&mediaId=thumb_square&state=standard&contentPlacement=4&version=internal&contentCollection=www.nytimes.com&contentId=http://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/13/upshot/a-fumble-on-a-key-fafsa-tool-and-a-failure-to-communicate.html&eventName=Watching-article-click
Thank you for posting this!
I can’t believe it!
We are filing late today, luckily with 2016-2017 in hand with autofilled data, but honestly, what the heck was in their minds when they stopped the IRS Data Retrieval tool?
Yes, some people commit fraud, but most people don’t. And the cases I read about were for students whose parents were divorced, and one parent lied on the forms. Why not just either not let divorced parents use it, or put special safeguards in place for them?
Basically if you get hold of somebody’s name, SSN and date of birth and this person never create a FAFSA password (never filed FAFSA, for example) you could retrieve all his basic tax info. AGI from the tax return is used as a “password” to electronically file the next year return. Obviously the whole thing was not designed properly. Until last year there was even no password on FAFSA.
There is a whole thread about this pinned to the top of the financial aid forum…plus a new thread about this NYT article on that forum too. Lots of posts there.
Bottom line…the DRT won’t be usable until October, they hope.
About 100,000 folks are affected and will receive notification.
If you are filing the FAFSA now…get a tax transcript as well. You can pick up the form at your local IRS office to send in…or you can make an appointment and do it there.
And lastly…for folks like us…if you already used the DRT this year…keep a close eye on your financial things!