<p>We have 4 people in our immediate family but grandma also lives with us. We bought our home together and have separate living quarters. I couldn't claim her as a dependent for FAFSA since we don't support over half of her living expenses. However, since she is a senior on a fixed income, we pick up part of her contribution to the mortgage payment instead of splitting it in half. We pick up an extra $250/month of what should be part of her payment. My question is if it's worth my sending an email to admissions/financial aid dept of the schools my daughter has been accepted to let them know of this extra financial burden we have? Could this information have any bearing on her financial pkg??</p>
<p>That $250 per month is $3000 which college may expect you to use to pay D's tuition. So, yes report it, it can't hurt. And paying for someone's housing probably constitutes 50% of there support.</p>
<p>Do you pay the electricity? The water and gas? Do you shop and cook for grandma? Do you pay for the home repairs?</p>
<p>I'd reconsider whether you might be able to include her as a family member (thereby increasing your income protection allowance, and decreasing your EFC). She doesn't have to be a "dependent" in order to include her as a "family member" so long as she lives in the home, and gets more than half her support from you -- and this question doesn't have to match the exemptions question on your tax return. Add together the $250 + food + maintenance + property taxes (if you pay them) and see whether her basic expenses exceed what you spend to help support her.</p>
<p>no, we don't pay more than half. she pays one third of the utilities and $500 toward the mortgage. i do pay all the water, garbage, sewage and cable for her which i calculated to be about $30/month using 1/3 of the bill as "her share" so i guess in all we pay about $280 of what would be her expenses every year. how ugly is it going to get proving all that though? she pays for all her own groceries, medicine and everything else. if we are paying $3,360, i know she gets more than double that every year in social security and widow pension which is why i couldn't claim her as another household dependent on FAFSA.</p>
<p>You can write a letter explaining what you pay towards grandma's expenses each month, and that she lives with you though she does not qualify as a dependent. You don't have to go into more detail than that. Schools that use PROFILE or their own apps in additon to the FAFSA tend to take things like that into consideration, though it is no guarantee.
Having read your post, I can tell you that if there are 3 of you and 1 of her, splitting the home down the middle may not be the logical way to procede with the expenses. But as it gets complicated with other expenses, I suggest you stream line her support so that it is easier to see what you pick up each year, that should be on her dime, at least on paper so that if you are asked to substantiate the amount you claim you pay on her behalf, it is clear to anyone that you are subsidizing her. Your situation sounds confusing to me, and I would think it would be confusing to the fin aid people at college, and they do not like confusing.</p>
<p>The PROFILE actually asks whether you are supporting anyone other than your tax dependents, and how much you are spending.</p>
<p>someone is a dependent if they pay for less than 50% of their expenses. If u provide more than 50% than that person is your dependent</p>
<p>Best not to confuse "dependent" with "household member". "Dependent" has one meaning for financial aid purposes (Dependent vs Independent student, for which there are detailed requirements-- none of which have anything to do with living at home)-- and a different meaning for tax purposes.</p>
<p>The issue here is whether you can include someone as living within the household, for purposes of FAFSA #66. And that has nothing to do with dependent/independent finaid status, or with tax dependency.</p>
<p>adding.... to complicate matters even further-- you can include someone as a member of your household for purposes of this question, even if they live outside the home-- so long as you contribute more than 50% of their support.</p>
<p>i don't believe any of the colleges where D has been accepted, asks for a PROFILE. haven't heard about it yet. this really was never a confusing situation in real life; never much thought about it until it became time for college. now it seems like a pain. my mom definitely supports herself except for the utilities that i mentioned we pick up in full. we were just trying to help out a little. the mortgage is really the big thing where really each side should pay half in order to fairly split the equity in half at time of sale but my mom doesn't see it that. she thinks if there is only one of her and 4 of us that she shouldn't have to pay half of anything. it gets split into her paying 1/3 and that's it. like i said, i didn't mind helping out but now that i see this could be $3k spent toward college that goes to grandma instead every year, if a college would even care about this. i did email pitt's financial aid dept so we'll see if it makes a difference or if they ask for copies of anything substantiating the circumstance. nothing is easy................</p>