<p>A client of man has twins.
The parents are divorced, but have joint custody.
The children live with their mother and attend school in one community.
Their father lives in a neighboring community. He sees them every Wednesday and every other weekend.
The mom lost her job last year and is currently unemployed. She only worked for five months last year.
The mother is not remarried.
The father is.
He currently earns in the neighborhood of 250,000 p/a.
He is urging the mother to apply for financial aid.
She feels he is scamming the system.</p>
<p>If the twins attend/will attend a FAFSA only school then she can apply for FA with a free conscience. For schools that also use the CSS Profile his income will be considered with hers.</p>
<p>The custodial parent is the one who is legally responsible for filling out FAFSA. It seems clear that the mother is the custodial parent. She has no reason to accuse her ex of scamming the system.</p>
<p>If the twins apply to schools that require Profile, she will fill out the Profile form as the custodial parent. If those schools require the non-custodial Profile to be submitted, the bio-dad’s income and assets will then be reported.</p>
<p>There’s no scam here; these are the rules for FAFSA and Profile.</p>
<p>FAther can make reassuring comments/commitments that might help the forms get filled out – as in “according to the FAFSA rules, you are the custodial parent and you are the correct one to fill out the forms. It could mean thousands of dollars for the kids. Even once the FAFSA is in, there will still be thousands of dollars of expenses that are not covered. That’s where I can step in.”</p>
<p>He could add "Wife is opposed to me paying full ride if the FAFSA is not submitted by you. . She suggests two years of community college if the FAFSA is not submitted. I can see her point . . . " and see if that gooses things along.</p>