<p>So back in 2011-2012, I received $5,550 in Pell Grant for my 2011 school year, and i'm aware that I didn't have to pay them back. So when I signed up for 2012-2013 FAFSA, pretty much the answers were accurately the same. During my 2012 year, I noticed I haven't received any Aid, so I went and contact the Financial Aid. They told me that I had to pay back the money the Federal Pell Grant gave me. Of course I was unaware of this action. They told me they gave me 30 days to pay it off, however I spent the money on books, classes, etc. Which would be impossible to come up with that kind of money.</p>
<p>To add to this, I'm not failing any classes whatsoever.</p>
<p>I just found out it could of also been a pell grant overpayment/overaward?</p>
<p>Did you not end up attending school last year? Did you submit incorrect information on your FAFSA? A valid Pell grant never has to be repaid; if they’re expecting you to pay it back, they think that for some reason you weren’t eligible in the first place. Make them tell you why.</p>
<p>Did you drop any classes? How many credits did you take each semester? If you were given a full time Pell Award, but only went part time, then you were over-awarded.</p>
<p>Or, maybe your FAFSA was reviewed and your EFC was changed to a higher amount. That sounds like maybe the issue. If after the review, they found out that you didn’t qualify for your Pell award, you’d have to pay the money back.</p>
<p>The above suggestions are correct, and there are other possible reasons (less common). What you need to do is call the financial aid office and ask them to tell you EXACTLY why you lost your Pell grant. Post back here when you have the answer. I will help you make sense of the explanation.</p>
<p>I have taken away many a Pell grant in my day. There are myriad reasons for doing so. Of course, I always contacted the student to explain. Your school may have attempted to contact you through school email or message in your student aid portal, or they may simply have removed the grant and expected you to see in your student portal that you owed money. Where I worked, we let the student owe the school … we returned the grant funds to the government for the student … but schools have every right to report a student who owes as a federal grant overpayment. This means that the student owes the government, rather than owing the school. In this case, the student is not eligible to receive federal aid until the overpayment has been repaid.</p>
<p>It is very important that you find out what happened and get it resolved (repay the money). You will not get a dime of federal money, including loans, until you do so.</p>