Long story short, I completed the fafsa application and I mistakenly put 5 people instead of two, thinking they meant dependents of my mother .They asked for verification, and at the time I gave them what they wanted which was my mother’s tax return transcript and a list of the people, I even asked the people working there I could put them down they said it was O.K, which I thought was weird since I know my brother (one of the ones I listed) isn’t a dependent anymore but I stupidly didn’t question it… However filling it out now I realized those people I put down on the form didn’t qualify for it. I’m scared now because we signed off that it was true and received aid, which I don’t mind giving back but I know there’s a fine and possible jail time.I spoke to an advisor and he said that if that’s true the IRS or whoever night look to see if we comitted tax fraud if the documents I gave were false but I just gave the return transcript I was sent, we didn’t forge anything :(.
Additional info: The people I listed are dependents of my mother and are supported by her, which I assume the tax return transcript says, but they live in another country.
Can someone please give any insight, I’m having major anxiety right now.
Contact the schools. You made a mistake. Ask them how to correct it.
Look on your school portals…the school might have already caught this mistake…and made the correction.
Thank you for replying!
I spoke to a financial aid advisor and he said that basically he has no way of knowing what might happen if I give the right info this time …which isn’t so comforting. I’ll try to speak to someone that actually handles the paperwork at my school to see what they say.
**I forgot to mention that I already corrected it on fafsa which is why I’ m scared, since now I’m probably on their radar.
If you already corrected it and resubmitted to your colleges, they will,get the correction.
You might want to mention that you have made this fafsa correction. TBH, you did the right thing.
Thank you for saying that, everyone around me is kind of giving me the impression that I had done the stupid thing by correcting it since they didn’t catch it. I’m just a little worried about the “intent to deceive” I see a lot on this forum, which unfortunately fits my situation, even though I honestly didn’t intend for that.
People who intend to deceive…don’t make the corrections. You did make the corrections.
Hopefully my school will see it that way. I’m just a really confused as to why they would handle the verification documents and not question, for the people I listed, their ssn or something like that would tip me off that I gave the wrong info.
Your mistake is rather common. People wrongly put relatives down that live in other countries. Then that has to be corrected. And it sounds like you did.
You may have not been clear when you asked the FA office. They may not have realized that you were counting people who do NOT live with your mom.
I would not worry about a fine or jail time. I would think the worst reasonable thing they would do would be to correct your financial aid. Have you run the NPC estimates as to how much of a difference this makes for your family?
Yeah, I believe that my financial aid adviser and I were taking about two different things since I was still a little confused at that point. I plan on talking to the people that verified my documents to see if they have a policy on this, repercussions on mistakes made during verification, since I very stupidly signed a document that verified everything and it says possible fine and/or jail for false info given.
You made a mistake…and you corrected it.
I don’t think you will be sent to jail!
I only checked my SAR and saw that due to the corrections it says I’m not eligible to receive aid anymore. I’m not sure if that makes my case worse in the eyes of the school.
Your SAR says what? That your EFC is now too high for federally funded aid?
I’m only really worried since I had to write a list of these people and the school can technically see it as me trying to trick them with my mother’s dependents. Also my mother signed off on it too, since she doesn’t really speak English well, I used my misguided logic to explain it to her. and I don’t want her to get in any sort of legal trouble because I made a mistake.
It says according to the information given I am not qualified to receive federal aid.
It says you re not qualified to receive federal aid?
Wht is your new EFC?
Check your college portal. See if you have been selected for verification and if additional,documents are needed. It’s possible you have been selected for verification, and until that is resolved, you cannot receive aid.
What is your EFC?
And please write the exact words about not qualifying for aid.