Help me understand how Lower income but Frugal Savers are being penalized by NEW College formula...

this is another whole question unrelated to a college forum… and I haven’t looked into it at all . I don’t even understand how our 401k works… but I was under the assumption it was rather expensive to take out a Roth IRA in comparison to others…is this true ?? what you put into it gets taxed upfront or something ??

I’m under the impression we are in too low of a tax bracket to get much gain from a Roth… there has to be pros & cons for every IRA and family situation …