Does my kid qualify for the full Pell Grant? and what if a college made a mistake?
I retired in 2015. My income for 2015 included W2 and retirement saving withdrawal. The AGI was less than $60K. My older kid will start college in the Fall, fafsa shows that she may be qualified for about $700 and the amount was on all of the college financial aid packages. I worked with a college to verify our income last week, sent them the W2 and retirement account withdrawal. On Friday, I received an updated financial aid package which included the full Pell Grant (over $5900) and additional grant from the college. I asked the college whether it would be what she receives in the coming year, they confirmed that it would be. When I got home at night, I checked fafsa, the college did not change our fafsa. My assumption is that the money comes from the federal government and that it was determined in fafsa. I will confirm with the college one more time on Monday, but I want to be prepared…My understanding is that Pell Grant is determined in fafsa and it is federal money, right? Can the college give me the over $5900 without updating my kid’s fafsa? What if they make a mistake now and ask me for the difference during the school year? Am I responsible for the difference? Will they make it up using the institutional grants during the school year? I assume retirement saving withdrawal is considered income, otherwise, my EFC may be $0.
I’m not sure how they can guarantee a Pell Grant for subsequent years…when you have to apply anew every year…and you never know when your income will increase or something.
I think you need to contact the financial aid office on Monday. With an AGI of $60,000 I would not guess your kid would,receive a full Pell unless another sibling was also in college too.
I would seem THAT college used professional judgment and made a correction to your Pell grant. Other colleges do not have to do the same. I have two in college and for the first year one college made a change to award full pell, the other school about half.
Did they put the adjust amounts on her student portal or otherwise give it to you in writing? I have to say that if you have over $60k in income a full Pell award doesn’t seem correct. If your 2016 income was a lot lower it makes more sense that full Pell was awarded.
If they do not award it will you have to pay the difference? Yes, you (or student) are responsible to pay the bill if financial aid doesn’t come through.
The Pell grant is a federal grant that is determined by the FAFSA application. However as others noted the school could have used professional judgement.
My guess if they make a mistake that cause you to receive a Pell grant that you are not entitled to then you will have to repay the grant. They might make it up with an institution grant but that would be up to the school. If they make a mistake with an institution grant (the college money) then I would expect them to eat it. However, that part could disappear in the Spring.
If the school makes a mistake in awarding you aid, they CAN ask you to repay the amount to which you were not entitled.
If it’s federally funded aid, they MUST ask for repayment…and you will be obligated to repay.
For institutional aid, the school would make the decision…but if you are nit entitled to,aid…they can ask that it be repaid.
Best to get this clarified NOW.
And also, find out about subsequent years…because that doesn’t sound right at all. Professional judgement is for,one year…or,so I thought.
@kelsmom?
PJ is for one year at a time.Maybe the PJ for this year is just the retirement withdrawal amount for the year? If so, there can be no guarantee that you will be Pell-eligible in the future … it depends on what your taxable income is (what you withdraw from the retirement account). If the aid officer eliminated the income from 2015 because the parent is no longer working, they should have extrapolated the retirement withdrawal across 12 months by dividing the 2015 withdrawal by the number of months the parent was retired in 2015 … then multiplying by 12. That is for 2015 only, though. The real 2016 withdrawal will be the income used for next year’s FAFSA (well, technically, the AGI will be used).