Hi all-
I have a tricky situation. Any Information/suggestions you can share are appreciated. I changed my daughter’s name about10 years ago, but I forgot to change it in her social security card. I filled out the fafsa with her new name, forgetting that her ss is still under her old name, and we received and error. Of course, the fafsa name needs to match what ss has on file. I want to submit the fafsa as soon as possible. Should she change her Fafsa ID to match ss? What does this do to college apps? I am so frustrated with myself for not taking care of this ten years ago.
Thanks for reading.
You need to change the SSN to match the legal name. I’m surprised that your tax returns have not been rejected if you have been claiming her as a dependent.
If she is under 18, you can go to SSA and change the name. If she is over 18 she must go change it. Take the court order with you and any other documents needed. After about 2 weeks, she can then apply for another FSA ID. Beg the person at SSA to help you ASAP.
You have to fix it, and you have to wait until it is fixed to file FAFSA.
I agree with @twoinanddone
The NAME on her applications also needs to match the name on her financial aid documents.
Her name needs to be the same on everything. Changing her name to her “old name” on the FAFSA is just going to cause issues. I mean what bout her letters of reference? Are you expecting her teachers to write those using another name?
In addition, when she gets a job (does she have one…), her SS name and the name used by her employer need to match on the official papers (w4 that she completes, for example).
So…Tuesday morning…go to your nearest SS Office, get a number, wait in line, and get this done. If she is over 18, take her with you to do this.
I went through this. (Had never changed my name at SSA after getting married.)
In the short term I did change the name on my FSAID back to my “old” name so that everything would process. I presented all my information to my school’s FA department (to show why my FSA info had a different name than my school records) and they were able to work with it. Everything is processed by SS# anyway.
In the long term I did attempt to correct the issue. I went to SSA and changed my name there to my married name. When I tried to update it with FSA it would always tell me that my new name didn’t match SSA. I never was able to resolve my issue, and just submitted FAFSA each year with the wrong name on it.
After you correct the name at SSA, you don’t make a new FSAID. (They are based off SS# so it wont let you make a second one for the same SS#.) You’ll need to go to the FSA site and update the name, then the sytem takes a few days to attempt to verify the name against SSA database.
A friend is about to be 65 and had to apply for medicare. Her SS name did not match the name she’d been using for 40+ years. She had to go to SSA and make the correction.
The SSA is the worst!
If this was a legal name change, go to Social Security on Tuesday and fix it.
If this was a change that was never formally legalized, you need to get the legal process started so that all of your child’s documents (school records, drivers license, voter registration, SSN, passport, etc.) can be in the preferred name as soon as possible.
@flatKansas did exactly what I tell my students to do.