Parent loses job?

<p>I haven't done FAFSA yet because I'm not really sure what to do. About three weeks ago my dad quit his job, so now both my parents aren't working.</p>

<p>Where would I indicate this? or what would be the best thing to do? My family is from Colombia so they don't know how any of this works and I must admit, neither do I.</p>

<p>The FAFSA just wants the information on 2009. If you apply to a CSS profile school, there is a place at the end where you can add extra information. But otherwise you should write a letter to the financial aid office indicating a change in circumstances.</p>

<p>Are you a citizen or green card resident?</p>

<p>I don’t know if FA offices are going to care about the job issue, since the job change has been recent. I think a parent has to unemployed for more than 3 months for them to make adjustments. Also, I’m not sure they will look favorably on a situation where the father quit his job and chose to be unemployed.</p>

<p>If someone QUITS their job, can they be considered a “displaced worker” or is that for folks who have been laid off unvoluntarily from their jobs?</p>

<p>I don’t think that “quits” will qualify as displaced. Displaced is the new “nice terminology” for all the millions of people that found themselves involuntarily out of a job. It’s easy enough to spot on a FAFSA because dislocated workers are collecting unemployment and other health and related subsidies due to new initiatives by the Obama administration. A person who quits does not generally qualify for those income supports. OP your FAFSA is going to reflect the prior year but there are drop down boxes where you select not working or some such terminology. If there is any impact on your financial aid it will most likely be the following year.</p>

<p>Yup…only someone who has been laid off or fired is displaced…if you quit, you are not.</p>

<p>mclp…</p>

<p>Do you think that your dad will be re-employed soon?</p>

<p>^^ It will depend on what state they live in and what salary/hourly level they are at. The old rule of thumb was one month for each $10,000…it’s about double that for people with blemish free employement records in Michigan and other particularly hard hit states…</p>

<p>Quitting a job puts your family in a tough spot in terms of eventually requesting a special circumstances review (too soon for that … most schools require a certain amount of time jobless before they will review loss of income). There will have to be a compelling reason in order for a school to make adjustments. The father does not qualify for the definition of dislocated worker if he quits (I believe the directions specifically state that those who quit are not considered dislocated).</p>