<p>^
Not a good idea to get mistakes corrected and possibly have to repay improperly awarded grant money? Hmmm. Why would this not be a good idea? It may be painful but, in fact, is the correct action to take.</p>
<p>Mom2, the student is being honest…and that is exactly what she should be.</p>
<p>I think perhaps Mom2 was trying to say it would be best if the family, with help if they need it, go back and make sure there wasn’t a mistake in the Pell year. If they do and find out they made a mistake then they can surface the error with the college and work out what that means. I would do it this way too rather than bring all my paperwork to the college and ask a finaid officer to figure it out. I’d also probably wait a few days until the OP can use the IRS data retrieval tool and see what that outcome is if the OPs parents are fairly confident they filled out the tax forms correctly.</p>
<p>When the OP said that he/she is going to the FA office with paperwork, I don’t think the student’s goal is to “uncover the truth” and discover that he may owe $5500. I’m guessing that the goal is to find a mistake that will greatly lower this year’s EFC so that Pell will be awarded this year.</p>
<p>Yes…it’s very easy to say that the student should go to the FA office, bring it to their attention that a mistake was made last year and Pell shouldn’t have been awarded, but in truth, if this student doesn’t have the means to pay it back it would be opening Pandora’s Box. </p>
<p>Yes, the student may have gotten Pell wrongly, and that’s not right. But, it doesn’t sound like he did anything intentionally wrong. I hate to see a kid given money, he spends it (however it was spent…school, car expensese, books, etc), and then be told, “oops, you now owe that money back and you’re not getting aid for next year, either”)</p>
<p>If that were to happen, this kid would suddenly be handed a $5500 bill while also being left to figure out how to pay next year’s costs. That would be fine if he or his parents had intentionally done something wrong or had been grossly negligent.</p>
<p>There was a student who posted last year who was a senior in college. She AND her sis had been awarded Pell for the wrong reasons for the previous years. The mistake was uncovered HERE on CC, when aid wasn’t awarded for the student’s last year…and they were going to go to the FA office to try to get aid for senior year. Virtually EVERYONE here on CC advised them not to say anything because it would be very likely that they would each be handed at least a $15k bill ($30k total) While that may not seem “honest”, to expect these kids to go forward and get a $15k bill is asking too much.</p>
<p>The FA process is what it is. It either uncovers mistakes in a timely manner (before awarding money or start of classes) or it should leave it things as it is and suck it up for improperly awarding money (as long as fraud wasn’t involved).</p>
<p>It’s not right for people who aren’t trying to cheat the system, who submit the forms, get awarded large amounts of money (and for many people $5500 is a lot of money), the money gets spent and then they’re handed a bill? </p>
<p>There should be a statue of limitations after an award is made…and once school starts, it’s done…unless fraud is involved.</p>
<p>How far back should a correction go? College is expensive. In this case, it’s not a huge amount of money, but what if it were?</p>
<p>If there was an unintentional error in the OP’s FAFSA in a previous year, it is not unreasonable to ask the OP to repay the Pell. However, the OP would be in a better position to negotiate a payment schedule if he/she does so from a position of strength. That means that he/she first needs to run the numbers independently of the college/university FA office to find out what went wrong (if anything).</p>
<p>^^Yes exactly.</p>
<p>2010-11 is a closed year, so the OP would not owe anything for “last year.”</p>
<p>2011-12 is the current year, and yes … uncovering a mistake now will mean that the student has to repay money. I have unfortunately had to be the bearer of such bad tidings to students at this late point in the year.</p>
<p>I think the best place to start is with the 2011-12 FAFSA, which you can still see online. Please look at it … did you say yes to any of the dependency questions in the student section (questions 45-57)? Most common incorrect yes answers are for “in guardianship (Q54),” and “have a legal dependent other than a spouse (Q51).” Question 47 is another one students sometimes incorrectly answer yes to. If all are no, then look at the degree type questions, Q29 and Q30. Did you answer 6 or 7 for Q29? Or did you answer 8 for Q30? </p>
<p>If none of these apply, let me know … I will give you some other things to look at. I am betting, however, that you incorrectly answered one of the above.</p>