School made wrong changes to fafsa

<p>Sons total AGI was $8906 with $2179 being from work and $6727 being from grants & scholarships that he reported and paid taxes on.</p>

<p>Transferred all info thru the retrieval tool. Of course like every year he was selected for verification so filled out and sent in the paperwork. </p>

<p>The school made a change which was just processed today and took off the $6727 of grant & scholarship income that he reported and paid taxes on. So now it just says total AGI $8906 income from work $2179.</p>

<p>This of course changed his efc by a lot and he is pell eligible so this really makes a big difference.</p>

<p>I am wondering a.) is this right? Surely not.</p>

<p>b.) how should we handle it? Just change it back or call the FA office? which I dread because I have in the past had a terrible time and lots of misinformation from this office.</p>

<p>Fafsa question 43d asks the amount of scholarships/grants reported to the IRS. You should have originally put the $6727 in answer to that question. That amount is then subtracted from the student’s AGI in the fafsa formula so the student isn’t penalized by prior finaid received. Question 38 asks for income from work.</p>

<p>What did you originally answer for those questions? The income from work question isn’t used in the fafsa formula. What’s important is the $6727 being subtracted from AGI in the formula. What the school did is correct.</p>

<p>Exactly. We had $6727 on line 43d and after verification the school changed line 43d to 0! I just had my son send me a pdf of his taxes and the “$6727 sch” is listed out to the side of his AGI.</p>

<p>Guess I did’nt form a good question on the OP but the school REMOVED the $6727 and left the total AGI and income from work.</p>

<p>No, it does not sound correct at all. I’m guessing the EFC increased by about 1200 ish? A student has income protection of around $6,000 and anything over that about 50% (with some allowances for taxes and FICA) goes to the EFC.</p>

<p>You answered the question correctly by the sound of it. Definitely contact the - put in in writing with an email to the FA office.</p>

<p>Ok, I read the first post to say the opposite.</p>

<p>I would contact the finaid office before changing the fafsa. Ask to talk to a supervisor if you get a bad response from the first level person.</p>

<p>Every year my son has put an amount for 43d we’ve had to fill out a form to confirm that amount since some people mistakenly put all scholarships/grants for 43d, not just reported amounts. Is this your first fafsa that had an amount in 43d?</p>

<p>You may have had an inexperienced aid officer. The amount should NOT have been removed from the FAFSA (I am an aid officer). As suggested, contact the aid office. Do not take no for an answer … be persistent & speak with a supervisor, if necessary.</p>

<p>Son is going to go over to FA tomorrow and see if he can get this straightened out. Yes EFC went up about 1200-1300. Plus with the higher EFC he won’t qualify for a state grant so it is a lot of money we are talking about.</p>

<p>So to update- son went over to FA with a copy of his EZ to show he did claim the scholarships & grants. They did want a copy of the EZ and now they also want a copy of his W2 which is here and I am going to have to mail to him today. They said they need to see where his income is coming from which makes no sense at all to me, especially considering we used the IRS tool to tranfer the info and they have his EZ. Why does it matter where his income is from. Oh well… we will comply. The income is from a part time job he had last summer.</p>

<p>If they needed all of this info seems they should have asked for it during verification and not just change the line to 0.</p>

<p>They sound a wee bit incompetent. </p>

<p>Wonder how many others they have done this to.</p>

<p>My daughter always had taxable scholarship income on her FAFSAs. Fortunately our FA people seemed pretty competent so we never ran into these problems. (my son’s school’s FA were pretty frustrating though - nicest people, but…)</p>

<p>If you can I would scan the W2 into a PDF and E-Mail it to him. That should be faster than snail mail.</p>

<p>Some schools will not accept PDFs due to security reasons. My last school did not (although I may have opened some …). Faxes are often a very good way to get it there, but don’t forget the student ID number at the top.</p>

<p>P.S. Not sure why they would make you jump through the hoops, but it may be policy. It’s possible they consider it conflicting information as a matter of policy & require documentation.</p>

<p>Todays update- school did make changes again and added the $6727 back in but put it on line 91d- parent reported scholarship & grants! I did not pay taxes on any scholarships or grants! ARG!! So now he will have to make another trip back over to FA aid tomorrow! Who has time for all this!</p>

<p>Its just typical, they have made lots of mistakes over the years and always get them corrected but it takes 2-3 visits to get it done right. They advertise themselves as the fastest growing college in the state so I am sure they are overworked and have lots of growing pains but this is ridiculous! All of this extra work for something that never should have been done in the first place, and yes I have wondered how many others they have done it to as well, and how many don’t keep a close eye on the FAFSA corrections and just let it go.</p>

<p>How frustrating for you. Hope they get it sorted out soon. </p>

<p>They are bound to have done the same to other people. And most people probably don’t understand FAFSA as well as those here on CC. I know it wasn’t till I found CC that I learned I could find the EFC formula online. Before that, I would have have probably just accepted any changes a school made.</p>

<p>Kela, I feel so bad for you. Do be sure to report your experience to someone in the school who might want to know. If the school has a student ombudsman, that person … or find out what umbrella the finaid office falls under & report to that Director (student services, enrollment services, etc). If management is not aware of the problem, they won’t address it. It could be lack of training, incompetence, or too much work … regardless, it is a student service issue & needs to be addressed.</p>

<p>I am happy to report that the school has finally changed everything back to the way it was originally. I haven’t had a chance to talk with son by phone since he went over to FA this week (only text & email) although he said they were very difficult but finally agreed to change it. So once I talk to him this weekend and find out what went on I am going to find the right person to report this to.</p>

<p>I talked to son this weekend & found out what happened. After going back & forth several times with the front desk person they finally took him to talk to someone in the back. The person in the back told him he wasn’t supposed to pay taxes on his scholarships!!! & thats why they took it off! From everything I have read here it seems the FA office is not supposed to decide whether or not you have done your taxes correctly (which he did) thier job is simply to report the same thing reported to the IRS whether right or wrong. Why verify someone to find out exactly what they put on thier taxes just to change the info and say thats not right!!!</p>

<p>He said she kept arguing with him telling him “you weren’t supposed to pay taxes on your scholarships”. Well whether he was or not the fact is he did & it articificailly inflated his AGI. I guess she put it on parent because she felt the parent should have paid the taxes, not sure on that.</p>

<p>He stood firm & finally she agreed to move it from parent to student although she told him it was’nt going to make any difference!!! So she does’nt even understand the fafsa formula!</p>

<p>My blood is boiling over this right now. I am definitely going to report this but am going to have to wait a couple of days to calm down some before I can compose an email. I think about the people who don’t know any better listening to her advice, and giving out bad tax advice. This is a fairly large school, close to 13,000 and growing. wow…</p>

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<p>Good for him! (And nice job raising him, Mom!)</p>