Previously submitted FAFSA(simplified means) now asking for asset questions to be answered

Paying for College
1

I am no stranger to the FAFSA as this is my 4th year (and 3rd child). I successfully submitted for all 3 back in October. Yesterday I went into S3’s application to add additional schools, and now I am being prompted to answer all of the asset questions although when I previously I submitted I was eligible for simplified means. The section where I would select answers that would qualify me for simplified means is now all grayed out and blank and I cannot accessit. I did have the IRS transfer. Any thoughts? @kelsmom?

Also, I viewed the SAR for insight and discovered that we were selected for verification. I had no idea–shouldn’t I have been notified? It is related to answering the questions for S’s income and assets, which I believe was also originally not required because of simplified means?

2

Any chance you did an IRA or TSA rollover in 2016?

3

First of all, if you were selected for verification when you first submitted, you would have had an * next to the efc. You might not be notified by the school right away, because they may not yet be reviewing got 18-19.

If you were not selected initially and made no changes before you went in to add the schools, that is very odd.

Not sure what is going on. I know the federal processor found some issues with processing & had to reprocess some FAFSAs … maybe you got caught up in that, and maybe that is where verification selection occurred. Do you have any comments on the SAR that might give insight?

If the issue is that it was reprocessed, only the student would be notified.

4

@thumper1 yes, a very large rollover.

5

Simplified needs only disregards parent and student assets.

Student income is only disregarded for auto zero EFC.

But the student would get an income protection allowance of around $6,400 before any is assessed towards FAFSA EFC.

6

@kelsmom It assume it was there all along. It had never happened in the past and so I didn’t notice it.

7

@mommdc we qualified for both simplified needs and auto zero EFC…or so I thought. He had like 1500 in income and has no assets so it is not an issue, I just don’t know what could have triggered this since I filed a 1040A and had an AGI under the threshold for auto zero EFC.

8

Ok…did you indicate this on your 2018-2019 FAFSA AND check a little box to indicate this very large rollover took place?

Apparently, the important part is checking off the little box! Right @kelsmom ?

If not…this is considered INCOME on the fafsa…and you will need to contact the colleges, and provide documentation of this rollover.

9

Did you subtract the rollover from the income after you did the IRS data transfer?

10

@thumper1 Thanks for sending me in the right direction. I see nowhere to indicate a rollover though.

11

@mommdc No…any idea how I do that?

12

I don’t think you can edit it after the fact. I think the rollover amount can only be entered right after you do the ITS DRT for the first time.

If you miss it then you have to provide the school with documents to prove the rollover and they will have to manually fix the income.

13

Hmm…I don’t know what to do then because I can’t add any additional schools now. I will have to attempt to call FAFSA about it. I don’t see any place that I would have reported the rollover. The lines for untaxed income that refer to IRAs all say to “exclude rollovers.” Or maybe I should start with MIT–they have a cryptic message on S’s portal about “conflicting information.” I did call once about it and the person I spoke with was clueless(work study student??) and I haven’t had a chance to call back.

14

Found this:

https://ifap.ed.gov/eannouncements/080717ChangestoIRSDRT1819FAFSAForm.html

15

Thank you @mommdc. It sounds like I was supposed to check a box somewhere prior to requesting the IRS DRT. Oh boy. At least I know where to start now so I am less stressed.

Thanks @thumper1 and @kelsmom .

16

@planner03

You need to contact the colleges…not FAFSA…to get this rollover thing straightened out. Call the financial aid office, and explain that you did not deal with the rollover when you filed your FAFSA. The school will tell you what to do to get this corrected.

I don’t think contacting FAFSA helpline is going to help at all in getting this corrected.

Another poster had the same issue…posted on this earlier this fall. They had to deal directly with the college. They reported this cannot be corrected at all by you once the fafsa has been submitted.

17

Some states also ask for additional information, even from auto zero/simplified qualifiers. Mine did this year, although I know in the past I haven’t had to put in child’s earnings or account balances. It’s kind of a pain since my kids don’t go to school instate so whatever the state needs the info for doesn’t apply to us.

It just took a few more minutes to pull the account balances.

18

You should have reported the rollover amount when you did the FAFSA, and you won’t be able to change it. Since you will be submitting info for verification, gather evidence of your rollover amount to submit, as well.

19

@thumper Thanks, I’ll try tomorrow.

20

Well, this has spiraled into a disaster.

First I called MIT and spoke with a FA officer that told me that there was rollover in the income, so that was a dead end.

I chatted with FAFSA and was advised to just answer the asset questions. Umm…no.

I then called FAFSA and was told that they will have to send me the SAR form(which does show EFC 0) for me to list all of the colleges that I want to add, and then they will manually add the colleges for me They said the time frame to get the paperwork to me, me to send it back, and then for them to enter it in the system will be about a month…

Any other thoughts from anyone?

The FAFSA rep also told me that I only need to worry about the FAFSA verification with the school he decides to attend so nothing needs to be done until May. Does that sound correct?