<p>Hi, I was wondering if my financial aid for college will be lowered if my parents finally divorce... My mom is the sole provider for the family while my dad has been out of work for almost 5 years+(haven't kept track) and he pretty much stopped looking since he is picky on what kind of jobs there are. We have 4 people in the household. Although my mom is the only one providing, she makes about less than 25k a year. So my actual question would be will my financial aid for college be lowered if my parents divorce and I end up living with just my mom?</p>
<p>I doubt that your EFC will change much if at all. </p>
<p>A family of three with that income probably has an EFC 0.</p>
<p>Will your mom have to pay your dad spousal support?</p>
<p>If the mom earns only $25,000 a year, that is below the poverty level for her family. I can’t imagine a judge making her pay spousal support out of that income! But I could be wrong!</p>
<p>To the OP…why would you think your financial aid go DOWN?</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Thumper, I agree that she shouldn’t have to pay spousal support, but some nutty judge might think she should pay him something. </p>
<p>I don’t think she should have to pay. Heck, I think he might be “less picky” about accepting a job if he didn’t have his lowish paid wife supporting him. </p>
<p>The OP probably thinks her EFC will go up with less in the household.</p>
<p>Lowish? $25k isn’t lowISH…it is LOW for a family of 3. Below the poverty level, eligible for means tested benefits. LOW.</p>
<p>Ah you see my brother and me are over 18 so there won’t be any need for child support etc 
But thanks for the reply everyone. Haven’t exactly found a part time job to help out the family financial issues but, I am looking every now and then.</p>
<p>@thumper the reason I think my financial aid will go down is because the family size will decrease, I didn’t know if it’ll be affected.</p>
<p>Khearts, financial aid is most heavily based on income. Family size affects the asset protection allowance. The parental assets are given a protection amount based on the age of the oldest parent and the number of family members. Single parents do get a drastic reduction in this protection allowance. But unless your mother has substantial assets, it isn’t going to make a huge difference . Parental assets are hit at 5.6% over the asset protection allowance.</p>
<p>That’s not correct for fafsa cpt. The asset protection allowance is based solely on the number of parents and age of oldest parent. The income protection allowance is based on number in household and number in college.</p>
<p><a href=“http://ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/091312EFCFormulaGuide1314.pdf[/url]”>http://ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/091312EFCFormulaGuide1314.pdf</a></p>
<p>Tables A5 and A3.</p>