If married parents (who are able to work, college educated and employable) do not work because they are living off nontaxable gifts from others, will they get a lot of institutional aid from colleges where their kids are admitted, or will colleges ask why there is no income and calculate an EFC they could be earning?
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@BelknapPoint would those ānon-taxable giftsā be viewed as unearned income for a family.
ETAā¦I donāt think colleges tell people to get jobs. But if your income is really $0, you can expect to be verified. And the colleges justifiably will want to know how you are paying your day to day living expenses. Soā¦be prepared to tell them.
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gifts do not count as unearned income.
So the super-rich people down the street are fully supporting their neāer do well kid, spouse & grandkids. They let the family live in a house and use cars (and pay for all the upkeep) that the parents own and let the family use their credit cards to pay all their living expenses. They own no property in their own name, and have no bank accounts in their own names. Since the Bank of Mom & Dad are paying for everything, they donāt have to work and can spend their time playing bridge or polo or doing pottery when they arenāt taking the kids on exotic holidays.
But now itās college time, and look! they are āeligibleā for free college for the kids b/c they donāt have any income! Donāt need more money from the 'rentsā¦just get them into a generous college.
Is that your worry?
Ofc, everybody has to file taxes, even if there is $0 income, and those returns are required as part of the financial aid paperwork. A family with $0 in income but nothing filled in for government supports is going to raise a question.
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That meets full need for all. Of course with $0 income, they will be eligible for the Pell Grant which should pay community college tuition.
Does this family have $0 in assets? No savings, no home, nothing?
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Even if they do have assets, on the fAFSA theyād be auto zero based on income, so qualify for maximum Pell. On a CSS, maybe the schools wonāt be so generous and count the Polo ponies as money for college.
I think this happens so rarely that it doesnāt matter in the scheme of Pell grants and who deserves them. And even in the example given above, it is not the kidās fault that the parents donāt work and the grandparents pay for everything. Maybe the grandchild generation will get jobs and change the narrative.
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@kelsmom is the auto $0 EFC per FAFSA remaining the same after the FAFSA changes?
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Closing thread temporarily for administrative review
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Iāve decided to leave the thread closed.
For many reasons, not least of which is privacy, we prefer that threads be about yourselves or your children. In some instances, the moderators have discretion to allow threads that can only help the applicant, even if not the OPās child. Examples include FGLI, limited experience / resources within the studentās immediate sphere, etc.
This thread does not fall into those categories. Of course, if the parents or kids in this situation want to post, they are certainly welcome to do so.
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