<p>Hi, I recently had another problem on my fafsa that I don't know what to do. I included my grandmother as part of my parent's family member. However, my parents only pay for about half of my grandma's expenses while my uncle's family pays for the other half. Would she still be considered part of my family? Do my family have to calculate the expenses paid to her manually or is there some place I can check on my parent's tax forms? Thank you.</p>
<p>Most of the fields on the FAFSA do not relate to how taxes are filed…but this one might. Did your parents declare grandma as a dependent on their taxes? Does grandma have any of her own income…social security or a pension? If so, those amounts would also be included in grandma’s support so your parents and uncle might not actually be paying 1/2 of grandma’s living expenses.</p>
<p>My grandma is not on the list of dependents on my parent’s tax forms. However, I was told that the fafsa and the tax forms have different definitions for “dependent” by a financial aid advisor. As far as social security and pension, I think she does get them so I think that answers my question. Thank you.</p>
<p>Does your grandmother live with you? The FAFSA definition for a family member (other than children) is someone who lives with your parents and for whom your parents are paying MORE than one half of their support and who will continue to receive more than half of their support from your parents for the period the FAFSA covers (July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011).</p>
<p>Agreed with sk8rmom…but remember to include grandma’s social security and pension in the mix. If she is getting these things…they are part of her “support”.</p>
<p>I think I read that grandparents who are living with you that are collecting social security (and social security health benefits) are hard to claim on FAFSA because generally these people are really mostly supporting themselves.</p>
<p>We won’t include grandparents who have social security & pensions in household size. We have lots of immigrant & other families who truly do support grandparents, and we allow them in household size. But grandparents with any sort of income, while living with the family, are not actually being supported by the family (they may well be helping to support the family!).</p>