<p>I am a widow & we are looking for a 4 year college for my daughter for fall she graduates in may.</p>
<p>we are behind & just starting this process. question on fafsa but cut off is soon for most colleges. around march 1st</p>
<p>I have a savings for her but its in her name.</p>
<p>My large savings is really for living on I only make under $20,000 .</p>
<p>How do I get around this with my low salary do I have to disclose my living expenses savings?</p>
<p>Her college money do I put into a diffrent savings or will I get taxed on that.my money is only in a reg money market as I need it on a regular basis to dip into.</p>
<p>I should qualify being a widow, her an orphan & my low salary.. we could use the help as my income is low & dont want to dip into living money for college.</p>
<p>any websites or suggestions on who can help me with this.
ive waited to fill it out as Im unsure the right legal way to go about this.</p>
<p>Your post is a little confusing, but I will try to respond to some of it. I am sure others will chime in with more information or any corrections if I misstate anything.</p>
<ul>
<li>You have to report all of her savings and yours as required on the FAFSA. So, yes, you do have to report all of your “living expenses” savings. Just because you have earmarked them for something else does not mean you do not have to report them. Moving it between bank accounts will not help.</li>
<li>Income is more important in financial aid calculations than savings, so that is good (since your income is low). Also, parent savings are considered “less available” than savings in the student’s name in the calculation for financial aid. So moving more money to her name is generally NOT a good idea.</li>
<li>Have you run the EFC calculator available on the FAFSA website yet? You need to do that if you haven’t to see what your EFC looks like.</li>
<li>Not all colleges meet full need… so even if your EFC says something like you only would be expected to pay $5,000 per year, the college may not make up that difference in grants and loans (they will “gap” you). So colleges that meet full need are better. If the college meets full need, it usually says so on the college financial aid website.</li>
<li>Honestly, the widow/orphan combo (I assume you mean orphan because her father is deceased) isn’t going to make much/any difference in the financial aid calculation. Low income does make a difference, though.</li>
</ul>
<p>As with any info you get from here, please double check. If your income is below $23K and you are eligible to file a short form, then you can get an auto zero EFC. I am not certain of how the student’s assets play into this, so do look it up, but as a rule, if you do not get an auto zero, 20 cents of every dollar a student has goes directly to EFC, so it is wise that she pays you for her expenses and you open an account for such purposes in your name/ssn with her as an authorized user or secondary. </p>
<p>If you do not qualify for the auto zero, your income is low enough that you will likely still have a low EFC, but you will be assessed 5.6% of your assets each year towards EFC after an allowance of about $39-40K which depends on your age and some other issues. </p>
<p>Having a zero EFC makes your DD eligible for the PELL grant of up to about $5K and for subsidized Stafford loans up to $3500 her first year. It does not guarantee anything other than those two things from the federal government. If you live in a state that has funds towards education there may be some guaranteed money there, as well.</p>
<p>The EFC is rarely met at most colleges. They simply do not have the money. You can have a zero EFC and get nothing more than what government money there is. A lot of schools just then refer you to DIrect Loans (PLUS) for you which are not automatic acceptance. They can throw in some of their own funds, or they can just not </p>
<p>There are schools that meet 100% of need or a high percentage of it for all students, but those schools will not just use FAFSA but you will have to complete PROFILE and may not come up with any auto zero EFC and will expect you to pay something, usually at least the 5.6% of assets each year towards school. But each school makes its own determination. You would still get federal money at such schools.</p>
<p>So your EFC just gives you the minimum, in most cases that you can expect to pay. Other than the government PELL and Staffords, nothing else is guaranteed. I do suggest you get your fin aid apps in early as some other government funds such as SEOG and Perkins and work study can be limited and at many schools, it’s first come, first served, and there is not enough for everyone. Those funds mentioned are not guaranteed and it depends upon the school as to how much they have and who gets how much of them.</p>
<p>If this parent qualifies for the Simplified Needs Test (hoping someone can post the income and other info about this), do they still report student assets?</p>
<p>OP, if you qulaify for Simplified needs, then you don’t have to worry about assets. An issue could be whether you are permitted to file the simpler returns whether you do or not. Look up official info on Simplified Needs test for FAFSA and see if you qualify. If you see your income creeping up over the levels for this test in future years, and it makes a difference, your DD should have as little as possible, like a big fat zero in her accounts the day you fill out FAFSA. She should pay future expenses, any bills, reimburse you, to make sure that is the case, as she is hit harder on assets than you are. </p>
<p>But this year if you qualify for Simplified Needs, it won’t be an issue. At least for government money. Now the schools, if they also use PROFILE, that’s a whole other issue.</p>