need based aid question?

[redluke22]

<p>not sure if this has been asked before or not... oh well.</p>

<p>1st of all my parents are divorved. neither makes an incredible abount of money.
heres the thing. i live with my mom, she got remarried like 10 years ago, and her and my stepdad's combined incomes exceed 150,000, im pretty sure.
Anyway, they got "separated," and i dont know if they're legally divorced or not, but my former stepdad moved away and now contributes $0to the family. If they are still legally married, is there any way to reflect the new, lower family income on the FAFSA? or am i stuck using the larger figure due to the paperwork issue?</p>

[swimcatsmom]

<p>According to this you only report your Mom on FAFSA if your Mom and stepdad are separated</p>

<p>

If your parents are legally separated, the same rules that apply for a divorced couple are used to determine which parent’s information must be reported. A couple doesn’t have to be legally separated in order to be considered separated for purposes of the FAFSA. The couple may consider themselves informally separated when one of the partners has left the household. If the partners live together, they can’t be considered informally separated.

</p>

<p>I would think that would apply to step parents also
from
[Completing</a> the FAFSA 07-08/The Application Questions(55-83)](<a href=“http://studentaid.ed.gov/students/publications/completing_fafsa/2007_2008/ques5.html]Completing”>http://studentaid.ed.gov/students/publications/completing_fafsa/2007_2008/ques5.html)</p>