Has anyone else run across this. Daughter has 23,500 in taxable income consisting of 7K in Coop Earnings, 7K in taxable scholarships, and $9.5K in non-coop work earnings. Total taxable income of $23,500 was pulled from IRS. She entered 14K on line 43 of the online FAFSA application for 7K for the coop earnings and 7K for the scholarships. Yet her EFC is said to be $4300! That makes no sense. Combined with the income exemptions (about $10,200?) and the fact that the coop and taxable scholarship, the EFC should be zero! She is an independent student filing as a single.
$23,500
-$7,000 coop earnings
-$7,000 taxable scholarships and grants
=$9500 countable earnings
But subtracted from this should be her income exclusion allowance leaving a negative adjusted income or really zero income for a zero EFC.
We have gone through it with the worksheets and the financial aid office. They agree the EFC should be zero. HOw do we get FAFSA to correct this?
Has anyone else run across this - where coop earnings or taxable scholarships are not deducted from the AGI to calculate the final EFC?
There definitely appears to be an error on the processor side that affects this scenario. It looks to me like the amounts listed for line 43 are not being removed from the formula. I suggest that she contact her school’s financial aid office to ask them for help. This issue needs to get fixed!
Yep. I’m sure it is affecting other kids. My two go to two different schools in two different states. We push coop earnings to reduce the EFC but there is definitely an error on the processor side. One school corrected it when brought to their attention. The other school so far has refused to, stating that they can’t change or recalculate the EFC (I don’t believe that to be true otherwise the other school couldn’t have done it). I guess FAFSA doesn’t do anything until enough colleges bring it to their attention. I wonder how many kids/parents don’t realize why their EFC is so high if they are in a similar situation and instead either give up (quit school), go into more debt, etc.
It’s really early in the arc of 2022-23 financial aid. I am sure it will eventually be fixed. The schools that are heavy in co-op will make sure it is. There’s plenty of time. It’s just frustrating for the students in the meantime. Once it’s fixed, the affected FAFSAs will be automatically reprocessed & schools will repackage the aid.
We noticed this error in November 2021. My daughters have income and scholarships, neither which we being subtracted out. The IRS info was being pulled in but the line (I think) 43 that was filled in wasn’t being subtracted in determining EFC. My major concern is that this can cause student’s to become inelgible for need based competitive scholarships where they base it upon highest need first. For one daughter, they fixed it immediately and overrode the EFC. She was in KY. The other daughter, in TX, stated they couldn’t do any thing until FAFSA fixed it. They finally did an override but she had to file an appeal, expalin the situation to people that didn’t seem to understand, etc. The EFC, after the appeal, still wasn’t at where it was supposed to be (zero) but it was closer (EFC=1000). The system needs a better way to get fixed than simply relying upon enough colleges to figure it out or t make complaints/express concerns to FAFSA as college executives.
It was a relatively simple thing to get similar issues fixed when I reported one a dozen years back. I am not sure what the problem is on this one, but I suspect it might be related to staffing on the federal end.