<p>Is income earned from a Federal Work-Study Grant taxable? Would you receive a W-2 for it?</p>
<p>Work Study is taxable for federal and state tax purposes. You do not pay FICA deductions on it. Yes you should receive a W2 for it.</p>
<p>SwimCat…</p>
<p>Can you share some insight about Federal Work-study??</p>
<p>First of all. Is there only one kind of work-study? Is all work-study Federal related? Does the federal gov’t pay the salary for work-study jobs? If not, why is the word “federal” in there?</p>
<p>Do some F/A packages just list “work/study” and it has nothing to do with Federal work study? If so…in such a case, are colleges just inserting a $$$ amount that they believe the student should be able to earn and contribute through a job of the student’s choice?</p>
<p>Re: campus jobs that have priority for federal work/study… Are these jobs paid by the federal gov’t? </p>
<p>I’m dumb about this, and just want to get better educated about it.</p>
<p>Work Study is a federally funded program that provides colleges with money that is used to pay salaries for designated jobs. Work Study is a need based award. In other words, you cannot get it if you do not have some financial need. The award is based on the completion of the FAFSA. </p>
<p>Students who are awarded work study typically get a dollar amount in their award. The STUDENT is then responsible for finding a job that can be paid for using work study funds. The college is NOT responsible for finding the student a job. Most schools have jobs listed on their websites, and applications can also be done that way. </p>
<p>As an example, if a student has a $2000 work study award, that student can work at a work study job UNTIL that amount of money is used up. After that, a variety of things can happen. At some schools, the student would not continue working at that job as the work study funds would be used up. At other schools, jobs are funded with work study funds but also can be funded through university funds…so the student could continue working.</p>
<p>If a job is designated as work study ONLY…a student without a work study award will not be able to be hired for that job. </p>
<p>Most colleges have both work study jobs AND regular college jobs (paid for by the college itself). Students with work study awards can get a work study job and/or a regular job. </p>
<p>The advantage to work study is that it is also not considered as income for the following year on the student’s FAFSA.</p>
<p>Federal work study jobs are largely, but not entirely, funded by the federal government. I think the percentage is around 66% paid by the govt and the rest by the institution, but I am not sure where I remember that % from (probably CC sometime in the past) so it may not be quite accurate. This of course makes WS jobs very popular from the employer point of view as they only have to come up with a % of the wage which is very good for their budget purposes. </p>
<p>Federal WS jobs can be on campus but can also be off campus for certain types of non profit organizations. For instance at my daughter’s school there are on campus jobs and also off campus jobs at US government facilities (she had a job at a USDA lab), tutoring at local schools, domestic violence shelter etc etc. </p>
<p>At my daughter’s school it is very difficult to find any sort of on campus job if you do not have a WS award. As I said above - having the govt pay a large % of the wage makes WS employees very affordable to the employer and many departments might not be able to afford them as non WS. She earned her full award last year but does not have a WS award this year (has the SMART grant as I think I have mentioned before) and has found no jobs available at her school that are not WS. There was a job she was really interested in but she was not eligible because of not having WS eligibility.</p>
<p>The only experience we have is with federal work study which is all need based. I have seen mentioned on these boards once or twice that some schools offer non need based WS awards but those would not be federal as federal WS is need based. I don’t know anything about schools that include anything other than federal WS.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>Yes! I think this is often true - and often a big surprise for parents who think that their “non-work-study” kid can snag a campus job. </p>
<p>One known exception at my kids’ college…my son was hired as a paid tutor to work in the campus tutoring center. Since that job requires a “skill” (high grades), it is open to anyone who qualifies. DS2 will get hired next semester (a student must have about 50 credits first). My niece (at another school) was able to snag a paid job giving campus tours.</p>
<p>Thank you to both Thumper and SwimCat for the “WorkStudy 101” class above… :)</p>
<p>I learned a lot! So, am I right in thinking that any student with a work/study mention in their F/A package is getting Federal Work Study? Is there no such thing as institutional work study?</p>
<p>I’m with Swimcats…I don’t know anything about “institutional” work study awards. I only know about federal need based awards. In our experience (DD has received work study), the W-S award was federally funded work study. However, in her case, the job she has also is funded by the university. SO…what they do…they pay her from work study funds until those funds run out (if they do) and then the remainder of her job hours for the year are paid for by the university. </p>
<p>One question folks should ask when visiting schools “Are there on campus jobs for students who do not receive work study awards?” The answer will vary from school to school. At DD’s school, the adcoms were very clear…there are PLENTY of jobs for anyone who wants to work on campus and they are not all funded with work study funds. DD says this is very true. If you want to work you WILL be able to find a job. </p>
<p>At DS’s college, there were not a lot of on campus jobs that were NOT work study. BUT his was a very urban campus with plentiful job ops off campus. DS had the same experience as Swimcat’s daughter. He applied for a job that he was VERY qualified to do, but it was a W-S job and they could not hire him because he did not have W-S in his financial aid package. The sad thing was that NO ONE applied for this job who had the qualifications to do it…and it went unfilled for the whole year. BUT that was that…as the funding for that job was W-S funding. DS was disappointed…the employer was disappointed…but there was nothing they could do.</p>