<p>The 2011-12 Verification Guide is now available, and there is a side bar note that states that Making Work Pay credit must be reported as untaxed income on the FAFSA. So if your EFC changes during verification, that is a reason to consider.</p>
<p>So now you know ... report the credit in the untaxed income section. The home buyer credit must also be reported as untaxed income.</p>
<p>Good to know!</p>
<p>Would never have thought of that! I have never seen that addressed anywhere.</p>
<p>We have to add it to just about every FAFSA we verify … no one knew, because it wasn’t in the FAFSA instructions & who would have guessed?</p>
<p>Kelsmom, would it be useful for FAFSA filers to go back in and make that correction themselves, or should we just leave it as is and expect it to be changed if we’re verified?</p>
<p>If we just leave it to the colleges to fix… since my son’s school uses IDOC, everyone is verified, so if his school makes that change, I assume my daughter’s school (where she has never been verified) will also receive that correction.</p>
<p>Maybe it would just confuse things more if I went in and made the correction at this point… 
</p>
<p>If you are being verified, the financial aid officer will make the update. You don’t need to do that.</p>
<p>One college my son applied to had FSAID make this correction to my son’s FAFSA. The other colleges have not done this. I had never heard about this, and neither had the supervisor with whom I spoke at FSAID a few minutes ago. They said they had received no guidance about doing this, and they checked the IFAP website. We received a credit ONLY in 2010, not a payment. IRS treated this as a credit. Could you please steer me to a website that verifies the policy? Thanks! Is it possible to get a copy of the 2011-2012 verification guide if you are not a financial aid officer? Thanks!</p>
<p>Making Work Pay Credit will not be available for Income Year of 2011, it is going away. </p>
<p>For other changes for 2011, check the 1040-ES form for 2011 on the IRS dot Gov site.</p>
<p>AFAIK, they didn’t add the Making Work Pay credit back in as untaxed income last year. What made them decide to do it this year? Doesn’t seem right.</p>
<p><a href=“http://ifap.ed.gov/fsahandbook/attachments/1112AVG.pdf[/url]”>http://ifap.ed.gov/fsahandbook/attachments/1112AVG.pdf</a>.</p>
<p>AVG-2 references the change, and AVG-19 has the information in a sidebar. This information was recently distributed to all financial aid professionals, and aid offices should absolutely be aware of this.</p>
<p>If we verify a file, we are required to make the update. It does result in an EFC change for all but a very few EFC’s (such as auto 0).</p>
<p>Does that seems a little inequitable, that verified FAFSA’s will be updated, but unverified ones will keep their EFC as is?</p>
<p>We have no choice but to follow the rules as they are communicated to us.</p>
<p>So how much does the $800 making work pay credit add to the EFC? 22% of $800?</p>
<p>memama - for many, it’s 47% of $800.</p>
<p>'rentof2 - it really does seem inequitable that only <em>some</em> people’s FAFSA’s will have this added back in to income. If they were going to do this, they should have had their act together and PUT IT INTO THE FORMULA and instructions to begin with so that it would apply to everyone.
Sheesh. Ridiculous!</p>
<p>In my case it was 100% add to my EFC.
At first on FAFSA I got EFC = 1238
After college correction (President Obama work credit = $800), my EFC went up to 2038
Is it correct or no?
UCSD put work credit to line 92i in my FAFSA.
To which line they add your work credit?</p>
<p>This is wrong - “available income” (income after the Income Protection Allowance has been subtracted out) is assessed at a MAXIMUM rate of 47% (less for some). The most your EFC should have gone up is .47 X $800 = $376</p>
<p>If your EFC is only 1238, you may very well be in a lower bracket where available income is assessed at a LOWER rate than 47%</p>
<p>92i looks like the correct line, but they didn’t do the math correctly. At all.</p>
<p>This is very discriminatory. There are those who are pell eligible by only a few dollars. The ones who remain unverified will get to keep this grant when they may actually be ineligible now. The verified ones will lose out on the pell and other benefits that may be associated with it.More income redistribution?</p>
<p>It is not income redistribution. If anything, it is an oversight on the part of Congress. When they write laws affecting financial aid, the laws must be carried out according to the wording … therefore, the fact that Congress did not specifically state in the law that MWP can be excluded means that it must be included. Aid offices then are required to add it back in when they have evidence on file that the credit was taken. That is just how things work, unfortunately … an oversight that results in the credit being added back.</p>
<p>As far as MWP adding back dollar for dollar, I wonder if there were other corrections made during verification that just happened to coincidentally add up to a difference of $800. The vast majority of aid offices are NOT computing EFC manually, so I doubt it is an error in math. It doesn’t hurt to check into it, though.</p>
<p>Bottom line is many of the unverified will get to keep pell grants they would no longer be entitled to had they been chosen for verification. In no way is this fair or right, oversight or not.</p>
<p>Fair or not, the financial aid community is required to follow the letter of the law. ED released guidance that states that the law requires this to be done. Failure to comply with this requirement can result in fines and loss of eligibility to participate in federal aid programs for the college.</p>