<p>Of you don’t live with either of your parents then you should be filing the Fafsa based on the parent who made the most $</p>
<p>That’s how I originally filled it out but because my apartment is student housing and my permanent address is my moms’ (I live there during breaks/summer and go back some weekends), I have to put her on there. (This is what I was told last time I called the FAFSA help line.)</p>
<p>Thank you to everyone who provided input.</p>
<p>I’m calling FAFSA now to see what they have to say on the matter. I’ll post their reply when I have time so that anyone who has a similar problem can see what they had to say.</p>
<p>So if you live with your mom during breaks from school, she is your custodial parent</p>
<p>You do know that the only thing that Fafsa does is take your information and gives you an EFC to determine your eligibility for federal aid. The verification process and actual distribution of aid is done through your college. </p>
<p>What is it exactly that you ate looking for the help line to do?</p>
<p>I know who distributes the aid - I assumed that the help line would have people who know the exact process. Clearly I was wrong.</p>
<p>First time calling: The person told me that they did not need any information besides that of the custodial parent. … Then she told me that, since this was not a legal separation, I wasn’t allowed to put only one parent on the FAFSA and could get in trouble. However, I found a very clear answer online regarding that: Legal or not, separation counts (thankfully as Texas has no legal separation).</p>
<p>So I called again and this time: The person told me that I would not have had to provide anything if my /FIRST/ 2013-2014 FAFSA had shown only my mom. Because it took me a while to figure out it was filed incorrectly in the first place, he told me that I now have to provide both parents’ information.</p>
<p>He did, however, mention that this was regarding who the custodial parent is and was unclear about how this information shows that. I live with my mom. I have a as little contact with my father as possible.</p>
<p>To clarify, I haven’t even considered asking my school to explain all of this to me because they’ve been incompetent in the past. They’re a nightmare to deal with overall.</p>
<p>The bottom line is you need to substantiate your second FAFSA and your parents separation. As someone in addition to what you’ve been asked for, bring documents that support that your father has a separate household from your mother and something that substantiates that you lived with your mother. Also any monies that your father gave your mother would be reportable by your mother on her section of the FAFSA, so make sure that is all correct (on your second FAFSA). Depending on whether your mother and father filed taxes separately is also something you need to clarify since the FAFSA verification process is the college’s responsibility regardless you are being asked to give copies of the tax returns so you’ll need to do that. </p>
<p>As someone said up thread different colleges verify federal aid request in different ways. In the 6 years I’ve filed FAFSA for our kids I’ve seen all kinds of verification requested from something as simple as utilizing the Tax retrieval tool to actually sending copies of document to the college, to needing to send verification from another son’s college and costs. You are not alone nor are you necessarily being singled out. The college is only trying to verify what was reported as the college is required to do before distributing federal money. If you submit what is needed and it matches what you and your mom put into the FAFSA your federal aid should be authorized. If it does not match or mistakes were made, the college can make the corrections and you can discuss those corrections with the finaid officer. Schedule appointments with whomever is working with your file, don’t just “walk in.” And when you do go in for the appointment I would suggest losing the attitude, I highly doubt they are “incompetent.” If your mother is nearby, you might schedule the appointment when she can be there so she can answer questions related to where her finances that she reported are generated and if she reported so little income that the skip logic fell into place, she might be asked how she feeds and houses you and those sorts of questions others have mentioned.</p>
<p>If you don’t get an explanation BY YOUR SCHOOL…you will not get an explanation! You need to ask your school…and you need to straighten out the custodial parent info with the SCHOOL.</p>
<p>I think I need to straighten out a few things here.</p>
<p>My school doesn’t actually schedule appointments ahead of time. You walk in, type your name and student ID in and you wait. I know this because I have been in there enough times. I was asking questions on here and calling FAFSA support because every time I came in to talk to my school’s aid office (and, yes, was nice and polite), I got more forms and less answers. I asked questions. They either mumbled things or answered an entirely different question than the one I asked. </p>
<p>I do not think there is anything wrong with verifying on multiple levels that what is going on is the correct process. Especially when other things I have read seemed to be at odds with my situation. Additionally, I had hoped that some of the answers I received from FAFSA might help someone in a situation similar to mine.</p>
<p>Forgive me if I come off as frantic and frazzled. I’m tired, anxious and sick to death of me and my family living close to being broke for so many years. I’m upset that when I called my school about my aid initially, I was told that the only hold was that I hadn’t signed the online aid agreement. I’m angry that it took a week of pestering to figure out what was going on.</p>
<p>I am not the only person I know at this particular school having last-minute aid problems. Perhaps not incompetent per se, but there are definitely problems.</p>
<p>Again, I appreciate the insight I got from everyone who contributed to the conversation. Unless something I absolutely cannot solve on my own comes up regarding this, though, I think I will be going it alone with this from here on out.</p>
<p>(I should have clarified that I was not considering calling/talking to my school’s FA office over FAFSA /today/ but I have spent the last few weeks talking to my FA office and it hasn’t helped. Hence, trying a few new things I thought might be helpful. The plan now is to see if my mom will talk with them with me because bringing a parent into the mix has sometimes made things go more smoothly in the past.)</p>
<p>Ru -</p>
<p>Next time you are in the fin aid office, ask to speak with the first person’s supervisor. Your situation is complicated, so keep moving up the food chain until you get to someone who has the power to give you the final answer. We understand that you are completely frustrated. However, you need to find the patience to work your way up close to the top. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>When you put down that someone is a displaced homemaker or displaced worker, that requires professional judgement on part of your college’s financial aid officers who act as part of the FAFSA infrastructure in terms of verifying and making a decision as to whether you qualify for certain things. It’s not as simple as just being displaced as of the moment. If your mother and father separated as of this year, the FAFSA is to be filled out as of what their status was as of 12/31 of 2012. If they were still together at that time, yes, your father’s income and assets do come into the picture. That he is now gone, and your mother is a displaced homemaker as of now, requires professional judgement to override the EFC that would be generated using both of your parents’ information as of last year. The same situation would occur if your father should have lost his job or died this year, or any other financial catastrophe occurred THIS year. The FAFSA using the calendar year 2012 info, still has to be completed reflecting the status as of 12/31 of that year, and the infor then be overridden with professional judgement.</p>
<p>If, in fact, your father did leave during 2012 sometime, again, the FAFSA has to be completed with his income that was shared by your mother while he was living with her. That he did not give her any money isn’t going to hold up. If he left in the middle of the year, it is likely that half of his income for that time period would be divvied up as for her use. Strictly speaking, any expenses paid on behalf of your mother and you, such as rent, utilities, food, anything that can be tracked is what is required, but if you cannot come with any accounting at all, half of what income up to the date he left is often used for a separated spouse plus any payments given after that date. </p>
<p>The fact of the matter is that when someone has NO income, the question does come up as to how the expenses are being met. Your mother may have to show how she was paying for the roof over her head, food, utilities, and the same with you. If the numbers are all zero, how on earth are you all getting by on no money? If someone is paying on behalf of your mother or she borrowed money or she drew on savings, all of that has to be provided.</p>
<p>So the 2013 FAFSA uses 2012 information, so yes, your father’s income is releveant. But if you can bring your mother’s and your bank statements for this year, and show how she has not been getting anything from your father, and where every cent of support is coming and that she has not worked in years, then the financial aid director is permitted to make a professional judgement to give you as low as a zero EFC even though the actual FAFSA figures are higher using the actual numbers for calendar 2012 which would then make you eligible for up to $5600 in PELL Grant and subsidization of DIrect Loans up to a certain amount. But nothing else is guaranteed, as no school guarantees to meet need based on FAFSA EFC, </p>
<p>Professional judgement is what you need to get in order to get your EFC reduced from what it would be with the FAFSA properly completed with your father’s info, and yes, his info is needed. The person you talked to on the phone who told you to leave off your father’s information gave you incorrect information if the separation occurred this year–2013, and even if he did leave in 2012, yes, his income is relevant for the proper completion of the 2013 FAFSA using 2012 info, but all of that will be overridden by the professional judgement if indeed your mother is deemed a displaced homemaker with little or no income or assets. But again, there has to be some explanation as to how you are all living. Do understand that if you, your mother or anyone applies for other government benefits such as Medicaid or welfare, that every penny you receive has to be accounted for each month. You do not get money intended for those who needy without opening up your books, your accounts and explaining where you got every bit of money during the time period in question. It is truly an arduous, and often humiliating experience.</p>
<p>I’m going to disagree on several points CPT.</p>
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<p><a href=“https://fafsa.ed.gov/fotw1314/help/fotw01e.htm[/url]”>https://fafsa.ed.gov/fotw1314/help/fotw01e.htm</a></p>
<p>The parent marital status question clearly in bold states the question is to be answered with the status as of the date of filing fafsa.</p>
<p>The first sentence of the OP’s first post indicates to me that the original fafsa was filed after the parents separated and the dad moved out. In that case the the original filing was a true mistake and according to my reading of this link should have been corrected by the OP as was done after talking to the fafsa people on the phone.</p>
<p>[Correcting</a> or Updating Your FAFSA | Federal Student Aid](<a href=“http://studentaid.ed.gov/fafsa/next-steps/correct-update]Correcting”>http://studentaid.ed.gov/fafsa/next-steps/correct-update)</p>
<p>Truman State has a good explanation that only the income of the custodial parent should be reported, including any support received from the NCP.</p>
<p>[Change</a> in Marital Status](<a href=“Financial Aid Office - Truman State University”>Financial Aid Office - Truman State University)</p>
<p>So the fafsa phone people seem to have given the OP the correct info and the OP states they were warned that the school would be following up to verify the info related to the new status. </p>
<p>Had the separation occurred after the filing of the original fafsa, according to my 2nd link, the OP should have contacted the school first for professional judgement and not updated fafsa on their own.</p>
<p>I’m guessing the college is trying to verify the mom’s income (or lack of income) reported on the second FAFSA. If the OP’s mom and dad filed jointly it adds a layer of complexity to the verification of the MOM’s income (or lack of income) is my guess why the OP was asked to bring the tax forms into the office. The OP never said if the mom and dad filed separately, if they did I would imagine it would be simpler for finaid to verify inc. If they filed separately then the mom could have used the data retrieval tool and the only question that I would think would come up is did the dad contribute to the support of the student and was that support reported on the FAFSA.</p>