<p>My mother has been out of work since february. The person she took care of passed away, and she has been on unemployment ever since then. She is working honestly hard to find a job. I have a few questions about how this will effect me:</p>
<p>1.) Will the fact that she if dislocated help, or hurt my EFC?</p>
<p>2.) Should I file for a "Special Condition"? If I need to, what exactly does this do?</p>
<p>Thank you for the help.</p>
<p>I’m curious about that answer as well for a friend.</p>
<p>If there are 2 parents employed and one is out of work, does the “dislocated worker” come into play? What if the other parent makes a good living?</p>
<p>The dislocated worker question on FAFSA is used, in conjunction with AGI, to determine eligibility for the simplified EFC formula which excludes assets. From the way the formula guide is written, it looks like only one parent needs to be dislocated. But the family still must have an AGI of $49,999 or less to qualify.</p>
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<p>If the parent’s income from work was significant prior to separation in 2010, they could file a special circumstances appeal and ask the FAO to adjust the income to current levels. But, unless that was a very high income or your EFC is close to the federal Pell limits, it may not do much for aid eligibility.</p>
<p>Dislocated is defined by the Fafsa folks. [Are</a> you or your spouse a dislocated worker?](<a href=“http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/help/fotw91h.htm]Are”>http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/help/fotw91h.htm)
The concept is: “…unlikely to return to a previous occupation” but it is worded broadly. OP’s case may fit Simplified EFC, as above.</p>
<p>Well my mother made about 30% of the income we used to make. So when she losed the job, we obviously lost alot. I think it would be to my benefit to file special cases.</p>
<p>Do you mean that she contributed 30% of the total family income or that she made 30% of her normal income in 2010? See what the total income for 2010, with unemployment, will be and use that on an EFC calculator. Then do the same using 12 months of unemployment income only (disregard her wages for Jan/Feb and replace with unemployment). Is your EFC significantly different?</p>
<p>Has your mom been receiving unemployment? </p>
<p>Did she get a severance check?</p>
<p>Yep, she does receive unemployment. </p>
<p>The thing I am concerned about though, is that on the FAFSA it is going to say that my mother is making X amount of money annually - when in reality, she only made that because she was still working through half the year, and she was on unemployment. That’s why I think I am going to appeal for a special case.</p>
<p>It made a huge difference. My EFC went from 10,000 to 5,000.</p>
<p>…I am assuming that she will find work eventually though, so my EFC might bump up 1 thousand points in the upcoming years…but thats fine. I can actually afford an EFC like this.</p>
<p>Well, if she’s still on unemployment then that is income…not sure if they can just disregard that since it’s still being paid but you might be able to ask them about that before you go through all the paperwork of requesting professional judgement. How is February half the year…or was she able to continue working for others through June?</p>
<p>Haha my bad, my mind was on something else. She stopped working in February, and has been receiving benefits ever since. </p>
<p>Well, I know they just can’t disregard it, but surely they know that its not permanent. Your right, Ill call and ask.</p>
<p>What I’m saying is that unemployment benefits are income for FAFSA. The only adjustment they may be able to make would be to adjust for your mom’s earnings from Jan/Feb. That may not make much of a difference to your EFC and therefore have little effect on your aid eligibility. If you qualify for the simplified EFC, which would exclude assets, that may have more of an impact.</p>
<p>Actually, that makes perfect sense! The reason why my EFC dropped so much was because I was doing my “Assets” wrong. I was including 401K there - when it was already in my “untaxed” portion. Not because of my mom… :)</p>
<p>…that really doesnt have to do with anything on topic; I’m just happy because my EFC is really low now :)</p>
<p>Only include the current year (2010) contributions to their 401k, or distributions they took from these accounts, as income - untaxed or otherwise. The balance in 401k accounts is never reported as an asset for FAFSA.</p>
<p>You don’t have any idea how much better I feel about college after changing that error - now I can actually afford it!</p>