Hi. After being accepted as a transfer student to a 4-year university, I was informed that I had to undergo the verification process to continue receiving aid. This is my first time being selected, so my financial aid counselor and I are working to fix errors that may be there. The main mistake we have noticed is in inaccurately reporting my mom’s marital status on the past 3 FAFSAs. No, my mom was not trying to “cheat” the system. The application has always asked for marital status of legal parents, so she set the marital status to “Never Married” to my biological father the first time she completed it in 2012. For clarification, they were indeed NEVER MARRIED, so in our mind, we were putting correct info for biological parents. With the verification process we are facing for Spring 2016, she just found out that the step parent tax info has to be included. We are now trying to correct the current FAFSA for 15-16 by including my step dad’s tax info. I am worried about the application assuming fraud, because we definitely did not purposely do this. My family is a low income family, as both my mom and my step dad receive Supplemental Security Income. We learned too that receiving this aid automatically qualifies family for 0 EFC. Other than receiving that, they do not have a job, and have been receiving SSI since before I started college. My mom has received child support for my only younger sibling (who has a different biological dad of whom my mom also NEVER married) for 2014, but it was less than $200/month, so the SSI should cancel out that, right? We just would like advice on how to clarify/fix past FAFSAs. Past FAFSAs have had a 0 EFC with only my mom’s info, and we think it will still be 0 EFC with adding step parent’s SSI info because it is not even considered on FAFSA. Please offer any insight on how we should go about this with the Financial Aid office. We are really trying to rectify the past FAFSAs, and not trying to take anything fraudently. If it so happens that the issue is pushed, we definitely have documents proving that they received SSI during the past 3 FAFSAs. They have no W-2s for past years as SSI doesn’t require one, so we really have been doing what we thought was the right thing. Please help. Thanks!
So to clarify, your mother put ‘never married’ even though she is married? She through it was only in reference to your father, not in reference to her marital status as of filing FAFSA? Yes that would be incorrect.
Just worry about supplying documents now for your verification. If there is any need to clarify other years, then the aid officer will tell you. If they are married and filing jointly, then the tax return should clarify that. I suggest you just deal with the aid office and don’t get mixed up by people telling you things here when we con’t have all the info.
That is correct. The application is always a bit confusing on some questions, so we’ve answered them to the best of our ability using info about my my mom and biological father. We just want this to be fixed as necessary so that my student file can be updated correctly. We are indeed trying to do the right thing here now that the mistake has been pointed out to us. Thank you so much for the advice. We are working diligently with the financial aid office to get through this verification process successfully.
OK well it sounds like you understand it now, and that that you don’t have a situation in which you took aid that was not due to you. So again, don’t sweat your past FAFSA at this time. Just supply the info so the aid office can correct the current one. As you know now, when parents were never married or were divorced, only the custodial parent fills out the FAFSA, and if they are now married, the spouse income is included.
It sounds like the OP’s mom and husband did not file tax returns since they only had SSI income and child support for 2014.
But there should be documents that show the amounts they received.
If you have questions about FAFSA and are not sure, you can call college FA office, they should be willing to help. Also I think there is a FAFSA helpline.
Some colleges also have FAFSA completion night, where they will help families fill out FAFSA.
Yes they do have documents from previous years to show that. On the previous FAFSA, we never really thought to question it because that particular question relating to marital status asks for legal (biological or adoptive) parents. So our first instinct is to indicate birth mom & dad. And both of them were never married. So that’s what we’ve put. Thanks for the understanding insight and for not bashing us as some people do on threads. We are indeed trying to make the best of this verification process as we are new to this.
Do your mom and step dad file a joint tax return? If so, it just seems odd that your FAFSA wasn’t flagged for verification in previous years since the tax return wouldn’t match the FAFSA numbers.
@Madison85 both of them have received SSI for a number of years (before I even graduated high school), so they haven’t had to file a tax return. As I stated before, there are documents that range back to 2011 (my senior of high school) that specify that they both received SSI. We don’t have anything to hide as far as income info because the documents prove the receipt of SSI. Just a misunderstanding on our part on the FAFSAs. If we would’ve known the very first time that the question was also referring to step parents, we would’ve indicated that. But on the very first FAFSA we did in Fall 2012 when I started college, we indicated that my biological parents were never married (which is true). For the consecutive applications, we chose the option to just import the info into a new application, thinking it was right. Again, we have nothing to hide as far as my mom/step dad’s income, and we have proof that would provide basis that previous EFC #'s would still be 0 if step parent’s info was there originally. From what I understand, the student qualifies for automatic EFC of 0 if their parent received assistance from a federal means tested program, and SSI is one of them. So in order to rectify the situation for past FAFSAs, all they would need to do is consider his income of the SSI, and redo the EFC to see that it will automatically qualify to be 0. So we think there would be no change in the aid that was offered. Don’t you agree?
It doesn’t matter if we agree. You need to fix it with this school and ask them fa office if you need to go back and fix it with the other school. We can all agree that it doesn’t change the aid you received, but our opinions aren’t the ones that matter.
@twoinanddone I was asking if the above posters agreed with my logic or of they thought it was one-sided. I know the opinions here don’t matter, I was just seeking general advice based on anyone else’s experience. As I’ve stated in previous posts, we are currently working with the FA office now to fix the issues. No need to be snooty about it, but I appreciate your opinion as well. What you agreed to is all I was asking about.
It doesn’t sound like your EFC will change, regardless. Good luck with the FA office.
@OHMomof2 We are thinking along the same lines. Thank you for your well wishes and for taking the time to leave a kind, but straightforward response. 
No need to look for offense where no was intended.
@BrownParent thank you so much for being understanding and straightforward in this thread. Your advice has been THE BEST, and it’s practical, real suggestions to help fix this situation! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I was really worried about this process as I have really worked hard the past 3 years to maintain Dean’s List and go to school, and do the right thing as a young adult. I’m not giving a sob story, nor am I looking for pity, but I know what it feels like to struggle and want to take advantage of opportunities as a student but requires a lot of money, but not be able to. My family has come through a lot, and with my graduation in December of next year, I will be the first in my immediate family to finish college. That is why we want to do the RIGHT thing, and fix this situation. Our intention has not been to wrong anyone, or take money that we don’t deserve. Hopefully, in the future, the application process will be amended to be simpler, and easier to understand.
I wasn’t being snooty, just saying that even if we all agree that it was an honest mistake, that there will be no change in the aid you received, it doesn’t matter. If you file an income tax return and it is incorrect, you are still supposed to correct it, and getting the opinions of 5 different CPAs doesn’t really matter. The rules say refile, and you refile. You need to investigate the rules about correcting a prior FAFSA filing and not take the opinions of an online group. If we all agree, and we’re wrong, you’ll pay for the mistake, maybe a penalty, maybe the loss of financial aid in the future. All we as a group can do is say ‘Opps, sorry, we really felt you didn’t need to make the corrections.’
I actually don’t think it is such an innocent mistake. If you don’t know what a question means, there is an information box you can click on and it will explain. I don’t think most people would read that question, marital status, and think it only applied to the bio parents as many of the questions about income deal with step parents. If you have step parents, that would mean your bio parents are no longer married to each other. The students and the parents can’t decide what to report, what not to report, what won’t matter. You have to answer the questions correctly and your mother did not.
@twoinanddone thanks for your viewpoint. The information box actually lists legal parents and in parentheses says biological or adoptive. I’ve never been through the adoptive process to be legally adopted by my step dad, so she put the marital status of my biological parents. In the past 3 fafsas, her indication of “not married” on past fafsas was not an attempt to hide assets about my stepdad because they both receive the same thing, SSI which is considered a federal means-tested program on the fafsa and we have papers from past fafsa years to prove it. We have no reason to lie about any income. NONE. The IRS will even see that there was no taxes filed those years either. If she were trying to hide assets, the IRS would’ve pulled past tax returns, which she hasn’t filed taxes since she’s been getting SSI before I started college. We are just trying to do the right thing to correct past fafsa now that we know it was a mistake. I actually wish we could go back to those fafsas and redo them so we can provide documentation of our low income. And as to you thinking no one makes a mistake on marital status, I’ve seen a few of these threads that ask a similar question regarding mistake on marital status. There are countless articles on the internet that support the opinion that the fafsa is complex and sometimes difficult to understand. Nonetheless, I respect your viewpoint.
I understand how people can be confused by this. The initial explanation is misleading, and you have to go to the “notes” section … buried toward the end … to find this (at the very end of this explanation):
If your parents are divorced or separated, answer the questions about the parent you lived with more during the past 12 months. (If you did not live with one parent more than the other, give answers about the parent who provided more financial support during the past 12 months or during the most recent year that you actually received support from a parent.) If this parent is remarried as of today, answer the questions about that parent and your stepparent.
Many in the aid community have expressed that certain explanations are confusing, including this one. The last sentence needs to be included as part of the initial explanation of parent.
@kelsmom I definitely agree. Thanks for taking the time to give your viewpoint. I’m glad to know there are others out there who’ve been perplexed by the fafsa process.
You want everyone to agree that your mistake was excusable. IT MIGHT BE, but that doesn’t fix it and you have to follow the instructions on how to fix it even if it doesn’t change anything from past years. Maybe it cannot be fixed, but if you fix it, you won’t have to worry about it anymore. No one is saying you were trying to hide anything. The fafsa forms don’t let the filer decide what to reportand what will matter or not matter. Many people don’t think it is fair to include step parent’s income but it is still required as you found out this year. It may actually help you to report his income as he is another member of your household, so bigger house hold size without adding any income.
@twoinanddone I don’t expect anyone to agree that my mistake was excusable. I was asking if anyone agreed with my thought process as in if you think I’m wrong, please let me know. That is all. We completed the fafsa based on what we truly thought was correct. You are correct that we learned the right meaning of that part of the fafsa this year. I agree that we need to get this handled, and we are working with FA to do just that. Thanks again.