All financial aid was recently removed for the fall 2015, spring 2016 and summer 2016 semester. The reason why this aid was removed from my account was because I claimed by myself and by my parents on both me and my parents 2015 tax returns. The Financial Aid office contacted me and asked me to submit an amended tax return for 2015, which I did. They then asked for W-2 information from myself. I asked for a deadline to find my 2014 w-2 information due to the fact that this was almost 3 years ago. By the time I gathered all the documentation, 2017 rolled around and I was unable to submit any of the forms. They stated that the required documentation and verification was not provided and they removed $8000 worth of the aid on 9/12/16, 9/14/16 and 9/15/16. Not only was the federal pell grant removed, but all the scholarships that were awarded to me from academic accomplishments were removed. Any advice would be helpful.
When you amended the taxes, did you take your parents OFF of your 2015 taxes? Were you REALLY entitled to list them as dependents on YOUR tax form?
You may not be entitled to the aid you received.
You need to make an appointment at your financial aid office NOW…and bring all the documentation theynrequested with you. Take EVERYTHING they have asked for. They can ask for this information and actually MUST do so to verify that you are, indeed, eligible for the aid you received…and think you should continue to receive.
There really isn’t anything anyone here can do. You need to talk to the financial aid office at your school, and give them the info they requested.
As an FYI, it is not unreasonable for them to have set a deadline for you to comply with their requests.
Thank you for the advice, i will do this immediately. I was actually told that there is no deadline to submit these forms. The person sending my w-2 information from 2014 had written my address incorrect twice. I finally was told that they could give me and online version. I Received that information on 1/1/2017, went to turn in this last piece for the collection of documents they needed and I was unable to.
@thumper1 - there are two ways to read the typos in the original post. I interpreted it that OP was saying that OP was claimed as a dependent on both returns. Assumes the word “was” was mistakenly dropped:
To OP: If you’re lucky you could get aid reinstated for next semester or retroactively applied for this term but there’s no guarantee. If you are worried about being able to pay, you might ask if it’s possible to take a leave this term.
If, like most students, you are classified as a dependent on your parents then whether or not your Pell grant gets reinstated will depend largely on their income level. It may have been given mistakenly based on your erroneous tax return.
Best of luck.
You would have received your 2014 W-2 in January, 2015. So, two years ago. You’ve learned an important lesson: always keep copies of your tax returns and all relevent financial information, going back at least seven years. Longer is better.
You screwed up your 2015 taxes by claiming your own exemption, when your parents also claimed an exemption for you. This is not the school’s fault. They can’t legally award federal money based on an incorrect tax return, and they have to take action when they uncover a mistake. You compounded the problem by taking too long to address the issue.
The 2015 tax year information is what was used for the current school year…2016-2017…and it is also what is being used for 2017-2018.
If something happened to your aid during the 2015-2016 school year (as you say in your first post…fall 2015, and spring 2016…that would be something from your 2014 taxes.
The hard deadlines are dictated by the federal government and published in the Federal Register. This is from the Federal Register: Verification documents must be received by the institution no later than 120 days after the student’s last date of enrollment for the 2015-2016 award year or September 26, 2016, whichever is earlier.
I assume that your awards were removed when you were selected for verification. Because you did not submit your documents by 9/26/16, the school could not reapply your Pell Grant. Do you have email documentation of being told that there was no deadline? If so, ask to speak with a manager in the financial aid office & see if there is any way your Pell Grant can be replaced by institutional grant money - it’s worth asking. If there is no documentation that you were told there was no deadline, I doubt you have any chance of getting any assistance - but again, it’s worth asking. I think that the date on which you were first informed of the issue will probably dictate the school’s willingness to help you out - if it was near or after the September deadline that you were first informed, the likelihood may be stronger than if you were told in May or June.
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The reason why this aid was removed from my account was because I claimed by myself and by my parents on both me and my parents 2015 tax returns. <<<
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Can you please reread what you wrote and correct all typos.