Can a University Take Away your Pell Grant

I have a pretty significant financial aid package which includes works study, SEOG/Pell/school grants and school scholarships as well as a huge outside scholarship. I was selected by the DOE for federal verification in july and my school has not updated me on my status as of now. But, they completely removed my estimated pell grant amount from my billing account without telling me or an explanation (I only found out by checking it by chance). Here is a breakdown of my package.

Estimated Expense Budget: $79,089
EFC: $20
FINANCIAL AID ELIGIBILITY: $79,069

Your Financial Aid for Fall 18 / Spring 19:

Outside Scholarship: $3,370
School Scholarship: $28,502
Pell Grant: $5,145
SEOG: $4,000
School Grant: $37,122
Federal Work-study : $930
TOTAL FINANCIAL AID: $79,069

My school’s COA is about $76,000 but I receive $79,069 because my school upped my school grant to cover the required health insurance which is about $3450. The insurance is not in the COA so they have to give me an extra grant to cover it, or my outside scholarship does. So overall, I receive enough aid to cover the COA plus the health insurance. But for some reason, the completely removed my Pell grant which means I am no longer receiving aid that would help me cover the expenses budgeted in the COA. Is there a reason why my pell grant would be removed even without warning even if it means I no longer receive enough aid to cover the COA?

If you were verified and that information resulted in a higher EFC, then you might no longer qualify for a Pell Grant.

Can you ask the school what your new EFC is?

Are you registered for a full semester’s worth of classes i.e. not half time or part time?

In the above example your COA would not be totally covered, because the EFC was $20 and work study is $930. So out of pocket cost would be $950.

You don’t get the work study money up front, you earn it at a job you need to apply for and get paid for the hours worked.

that’s what I thought at first, but my financial aid package has not changed. EFC is still $20, and hey have yet to tell me if there are any changes due to the verification

@mommdc I know that and I do I have a work study job to cover the $950, that still doesn’t explain why the $5145 pell grant was removed.

@blossom Yup, Im currently a full time student with 4CUs

Yes, go to the FA office and ask for an officer to review this. We’ve had posts on CC where certain funds disappear on records you can view, but are still in place, updated later. So, an admin/system thing. I hope your case is that simple.

Btw, that insurance cost seems high to me. Do you have other options?

If they were to remove your Pell grant because the FAFSA couldn’t be verified, I think the SEOG would go too. I think it is more likely a glitch in the system or you looked at a time they were cleaning things up. If you are at a school that guarantees to meet all need, and there was nothing missing from the CSS, then even if they did remove the Pell they would make up the funds in either school grants or scholarships.

If you received a request for verification in July, why is this just happening now?

@lookingforward Yeah I think it’s best I make an appointment to ask in person. Hopefully it’s just a mistake.

As for the insurance yes it is overpriced and im sure there are absolutely cheaper options. I just never bothered to look because it’s the school insurance and its pretty comprehensive and supportive even when you go abroad. I think they also prefer to cover insurance with grants when it’s their own insurance.

@twoinanddone Yeah my school does meet all need. hopefully, its a glitch and they give me my refund because I kind of need money for food and books right now lol.
I also wondered about the verification because it started at the beginning of the school year and I turned in all necessary documents on time, but my school is being super slow. I emailed them about it and they said they just haven’t completed the process yet so idk

When you were verified…what did the college ask for in terms of documentation?

@thumper1 for aid in general my school asks for the css, fafsa, school supplement, parent and students taxes and w2 forms. For verification, I had to turn in the parent and student’s tax transcripts from the IRS, and a verification sheet from the school.

It sounds like your school is checking to see that the info on your FAFSA matches that which is on your tax return.

Did you use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool when you completed your FAFSA…or was there some reason you couldn’t do so?

@thumper1 yeah, I did use the DTR on my fafsa. Does verification usually take this long though?

Verification can take a while. When did you send in your supporting documents?

@thumper1 as soon as I saw I was selected for verification, I had all my documents in by june 30

Go over to your financial aid office…and ask them!

Many computer systems are set up to remove the Pell grant if there are changes that have to be sent out to the processor, and if the student qualifies for Pell, it will be put back on the account when the school receives the reprocessed transaction.

If Pell was going to be removed then the SEOG would be removed first. It makes no sense for Pell to be removed if SEOG still there

I wonder if they accidentally removed the Pell when they meant to remove the SEOG