Balanced Billing and Work Study

Paying for College
1

My S is eligible for a total of about 5000 in federal work study. Assuming his tuition is more than that and I have already paid it can he keep whatever he earns? Or does work study go directly to the school?

I need to sign up for a balanced billing program at his school before the end of the week. He has not really started looking for a work study job and I am not sure how many hours it will be and so forth.

The school’s balanced billing system asks you to put in what you owe and pay it out over 10 months net of any grants. Assuming I have a balance of $20,000 including the WS, that I need to pay over 10 months, do I put down $20,000 (and S keeps whatever work study money he gets or uses it to reimburse me for what I laid out for him) or do I put down $15,000 knowing that he may not earn the full $5000 over the year but with the idea that whatever work study he gets goes directly to the school? I have no idea how work study works

2

Work study money is paid to your son, only after he works it. You should not count on it to pay the school until he has a job and has received a few checks

3

In your example, put down $20,000.

4

The work study money is not guaranteed, and it does not go directly to the school. It gets paid to the person who does the work, just like any other job.

5

One of my kids had a work study award that was not as much as your kid’s. She also had THE highest paying job on campus at $15 per hour. She was still NOT ever able to earn the full amount every year.

6

$5,000 earned over 30 weeks would be $166 a week. At $8 an hour that would be about 20 hrs a week.

7

Thanks for the replies. Did not realize how many hours he would have to work!

8

They usually give a max amount for federal work study that can be earned, depending on need.

But they do not have to earn that if they want/pick a FWS job with fewer hours.

Most students will pay personal expenses, maybe books with their work study income.

I would not count on it for the tuition bill. Unless things are that tight financially.

But the student can always earn more money in summers when they don’t have classes.

You might be able to qualify for American Opportunity tax credit, look into it, you could potentially get up to a $2,500 tax credit.

9

The nice thing is that FWS jobs are more flexible with a student’s schedule than off campus jobs. Also while federal tax and state tax might be due on the income, no FICA tax is withheld I believe.

And the income from need based employment (federal work study) can be excluded from EFC calculation on FAFSA by reporting the amount in question 44c.

10

It depends on the school how the FWS shows up on the bill. For my son it was deducted from what he owes like his other aid but that was a book keeping thing and not a true representation so I had to pay that amount shown as FWS and then he keeps what he earns (or deposits it in our joint account to use towards the next quarters expenses). My son has a job where he can work more or less depending on his school work load so sometimes he only makes enough for his personal expenses and other times enough to bank towards school expenses.