I go to a UC school and lost my Blue and Gold grant because of this meaning my parents now have to pay $8k extra every year and we can’t really afford that. For the past years, our EFC was around 10,000 but this year it went up to 18,000?
I’m really not sure where I went wrong on FAFSA. Our income has remained about the same since last year, although my parents did put $20k into retirement this year. Would that account for the rise? One of my parents has also lost their jobs recently, can I update my FAFSA to say ‘yes’ for dislocated worker? Would that even make a difference?
Did you get selected for verification?
Did you have a sibling in college last year?
Pretax earnings that go into retirement plans get counted as income. But that doesn’t seem like it would make a difference as that would just have been regular income last year, right? They did chance the savings formula but that would only make a difference in one year of about 2k max. Did you recheck all the numbers? Are you looking at the EFC from your SAR? compare all numbers to last year. Dislocated worker is as of the FAFSA filing date. I’m not sure if you can change it later, but you can let the school know. Wait for someone else to comment.
The student’s parent may qualify as a dislocated worker if he or she meets one of the following conditions:
He or she has been laid off or received a lay-off notice from his/her job.
He or she is receiving unemployment benefits due to being laid off or losing a job and he or she is unlikely to return to a previous occupation....
Yes means the student’s parent is a dislocated worker as of the date the FAFSA was completed and the student may qualify for the simplified needs test or for an automatic zero Expected Family Contribution (EFC)
When I first submitted my FAFSA this year with pre-tax information based on last year’s taxes, my EFC was $10,000 which is what I expected, but after updating to the current tax information, it went up 8000. I know 3000 is because we have one less household member, but I have no idea where the extra 5000 came from.
Since as of the day of submission we had 5 household members should I have kept it at that?
Is your income more than $50,000 a year? If so, dislocated worker isn’t going to net you anything.
Yea they make a bit more than that
The 2015-16 fafsa asks for your household size for 7/1/15 to 6/30/16:
https://fafsa.ed.gov/fotw1516/help/pnumInHousehold.htm
The dislocated worker status is one of the criteria that can be used for auto $0 EFC or simplified needs test. If the family income is over $50,000 a year, the student would not qualify for either.
I would suggest you contact the college and ask your question. It could be an error.
Can you contribute your summer job earnings toward that $8000?
Ask your parents if they got a $2500 tax credit on your tuition. It would be on their form 1040 (American Opportunity Tax Credit) - can they contribute that toward the $8000?
the $50000 mark is according to the AGI on the tax return, and pretax contributions to 401k or a deduction for an IRA are not included. You do have to add those back in on the FAFSA, but you are still eligible for simplified assets if your AGI is under $50k.
Make sure your numbers were all entered correctly.