<p>I accepted admission to the University of Washington as a freshman for autumn 2009. UW recevied my FASFA and parents income. I have been a low income student for life, having free/reduced lunch, getting all my tests paid for me. Anyway the preliminary status for UW financial aid said the college would pay everything for me.</p>
<p>Now UW requested to know where my parents got income from and what expenses they had. My father being a self employed trucker had lots of expenses that made his adjusted income very low. UW is now saying that the household expenses are way to high for my family to survive. UW is hypothesing that my family has income that doesnt have to be put on the irs tax forms that were surviving on. I have tried to tell them we are flat broke and have nothing.</p>
<p>They have now taken away all my awards and im heading to seattle to have a meeting to prove my case. Bringing all necessary documents because this is a big mistake. </p>
<p>If this meeting doesnt work out then im heading to a crappy community college in the ghettos, even though I have a 3.6 gpa. </p>
<p>Anyone with advice please help me out. Im stressing out real big.</p>
<p>Try to relax…it’s not completely uncommon for a university to ask for verification if a student’s financial aid record looks a bit out of order. College is expensive and there are probably many students out there who try to scam the system.</p>
<p>As long as your parents have kept careful records (or even not-so-careful but still accurate records) of their expenses, you should be fine. I’m not really sure what kind of income UW thinks your parents have that doesn’t have to be reported to the IRS because virtually everything has to be reported to the IRS, but whatever – your parents probably know what to do. If he is self-employed, he likely keeps good records in the event that he is audited by the IRS.</p>
<p>They have probably only taken away your awards conditionally, until they can get the situation verified, and will give them back once you bring all your necessary documents.</p>
<p>Really, this is quite draconian of them and a huge inconvenience for an already low-income family to have to trip to Seattle to prove that they actually make what they said they make and didn’t lie, especially when you’ve already submitted all the forms you are required to submit. Once this blows over, I might be inclined to write a letter expressing the amount of inconvenience and stress they subjected your family to and send it to an administrator (maybe in student affairs or something), depending on how they handle it.</p>
<p>I realized all this information on the morning of my grad night. I was baffled and inshock really because I just cant believe this. I dont even know how i got through my grad night yesterday. Anyway I know this is going to workout it has to.</p>
<p>All the information they want is on the income tax form what else do they want. My siblings who are also in college are coming with me to seattle. They know that something was looked at wrong by UW.</p>
<p>The end-result info is on the income tax form, yes. But the “backup” is not.</p>
<p>For example, if they’re claiming mileage as an expense deduction, UW might be looking for the backup on that. Where are the daily mileage sheets where your parents kept track of this?</p>
<p>Anybody can write whatever they want on a tax form. But if you’re audited (and this is, in effect, an audit), you’d better have all the raw data documented to show where your numbers came from.</p>
<p>So on this trip, have the income tax forms. And have the backup which shows how you arrived at all the numbers, especially the deductions.</p>
<p>Do your parents receive other forms of assistance? If so, bring the award letters along - they will help substantiate how your family is surviving on their income. </p>
<p>There are many deductions self-employed people take that lower income, ie. depreciation, so that may be one explanation. My dad had a trucking company too at one time and lots of deductions. Do your siblings or another relative give cash gifts to your parents or help pay the bills? Did they take loans or use credit cards to ease cash flow? There are a million ways that low income people make ends meet but some people do game the system and the school needs to take a closer look when the numbers don’t make sense.</p>
<p>It sounds like your family didn’t meet some standard formula support test for the number of people in the household and it got flagged for closer review. Your aid is probably just pending this review. Here’s a link to a document discussing this (and you can link to other professional judgement procedures from here):</p>
<p>I’m sure you have nothing to hide but, since you will be relying on the FA officer’s judgement to resolve this, you may want to leave the $500 Coach bags at home, lol! Good luck and let us know how it works out for you!</p>
<p>I really appreciate all your information and help. Im bringing tons of documents like bills and proof of expenses with me. I live in portland oregon so it shouldnt be a long trek.</p>
<p>I leave this monday and will update you all on the outcome.</p>
<p>While FA Officers are FAR from perfect, we do rely on a sense of normallcy…based on our experience in dealing with similar situations. Sometimes, a family circumstance doesn’t look typical and as such, we must do everything we can to document why we awarded the type of aid we did. Many times this results in the family having to supply us with additional documentation. For example, in Washington DC, a family of 3 cannot “survive” on less than $20k per year (although I am certain that many do). Because this isn’t “normal”, the FA Officer reviewing the FAFSA entries would cal into question whether there was additional household income that wasn’t reported on the FAFSA, such as AFDC or welfare payments, child support, SSA, unemployment, outside family assistance, etc. Even if the FA Officer could legitimize the information in their mind, if that file were ever audited by the Department of Education, the DOE auditor would question the information. If there is not sufficient information in the file declaring that the infomation reported on the FAFSA is legitimate, the school can be levied a fine or failing to adequately perform verification.</p>
<p>Therefore, most FA Offices error on the side of caution and require anything that doesn’t appear normal to be further reviewed and documented. I get many such cases a year…households were it just doesn’t seem like the household could survive on the income information reported on the FAFSA. In fact, I just reviewed on such case this morning where the student (independent) had 2 dependent children and claimed to survive on just $4k per year…absolutely IMPOSSIBLE. Anyone who has ever had chilren knows that one cannot feed, house and cloth 2 children on $4k alone. Therefore, as part of due dilligence, I must document how this student cares for his/her children on that amount of money. The student will have to provide me with documentation on household expenses, income, untaxed sources of income, etc or I cannot provide the student with any federal funding. If I overlooked the information and the file were audited, not only could the DOE fine my institution, we could lose federal funding for ALL students.</p>
<p>As others have said…take all the documentation with you, proof of expenses, income, etc. Be prepared to prove every type of scenario you can think of. Once you have proven the information submitted is accurate, everything will be fine.</p>
<p>Try not to feel too victimized, it is the finaid officer’s job to watch out for fraud, if you have no income they have to wonder how you survive. A loan or gift from family is not counted on FAFSA, credit card debt does not count either. Depreciation on the truck is a paper loss, you could have $25,000 in depreciation subtracted from his income, but you did not spend the money yet, it represents your loss as the truck ages, and some finaid people add that back to income.</p>
<p>Review your documents and come up with a compact explanation for your family’s story- not making something up, but the concise info that allows the financial aid people to understand how you pay for food & clothes & housing.</p>
<p>Go in not in a panic and not angry, but be reasonable and rational and helpful and show them by your demeanor and your info that you have nothing to hide, you can understand why they are confused and you are there to help them clarify whatever they need.</p>
<p>How would a gift or help from family/friend affect his aid? If it helps explain how his family makes it, would it be considered income and reduce his need?</p>
<p>How is money earned through work study and money earned from a non-workstudy job affect aid?</p>
<p>Also, the mention of depreciation seems to be a big topic this year. I have a friend who is asked to prove home value used on a rental property. It prompted me to check out our State Flagship site and they now have specific forms to download for verifiying home value when the home is used as rental property. Is it a way for financial aid to see if the rental property has truly become a loss/bad investment that reduces income?</p>
<p>Untaxed income is included just the same as regular income. It is included as “untaxed” because the EFC formula assumes taxes for the taxable income. So yes, untaxed income would decrease need (as would any income that is counted in the EFC formula).</p>
<p>Work study money is removed from the formula - it is in the AGI, but there is a place on the FAFSA to indicate how much was from work study - it is taken out of the formula. Non work study earnings are counted in the same way any earnings are counted.</p>
<p>For FAFSA purposes, the value of a rental property is counted as an asset. The value is what it is worth minus what is owed. The info the school is requesting is used to determine whether or not the amount reported appears to be correctly reported.</p>
<p>Thanks, Kelsmom. When I think of Sike 97 situtation, I wonder how kids are suppose to explain depreciation or rental property when parents have a difficult time. </p>
<p>Regarding the rental property question on FAFSA about the asset value of your business, would a person put zero if the rental property had a loss (1040 Sch E) in the specific tax year they are reporting, or would they still say they had value if they answer the question as you did, “The value is what it is worth minus what is owed.” </p>
<p>I see how this would trigger a verification if the value was answered based on the current year rather the the true value of worth. How would a person value a home in this market if it could not be sold? A truck might be different.</p>
<p>“FindmePete”: It doesn’t take much to show a loss on rental property on Schedule E. The value of a rental property is the market value minus what is owed. I use the “going rate” for our area in valuing the rentals for FAFSA. I just call a real estate friend each year and ask what has sold (rental wise) that year and what it sold for. Obviously the values have been declining across the country so this year’s value might be considerably lower than two years ago. That is information (value of property) I’d always want to know regardless of the FAFSA. She’s always happy to let me know, then I make a note and put it in my file in case we’re ever FAFSA audited.</p>
<p>I was trying to help a friend who put zero for the value because he lost money, not much, but doesn’t want to raise the rent as he has previous experienced renters who didn’t pay so he figured in the long run a small loss maybe yield a better outcome as depreciation was cuasing the loss. I think he is suppose to enter then house value as part of his investment asset as kelsmom said (The value is what it is worth minus what is owed). </p>
<p>I now realize the question is confusing as he is using information from his 1040 which shows a loss on the schedule e. When he sends the requested paperwork I guess FA will adjust if necessary.</p>
<p>If someone has a loss from their rental property, that is actually already factored in … it is an adjustment to the AGI. The value of the property is a totally separate thing from the income or loss generated by the property. As a reportable asset, the estimated selling price less the outstanding mortgage on the property is the correct amount to put on the FAFSA. The FAO will adjust the number accordingly when given the requested information. BTW, Zillow.com is useful for determining market value.</p>
<p>I just got back from Seattle, after spending the whole day trying to get this finanical aid thing sort out. Anyway it was a beautiful day in Seattle (which is rare) and I arrived not knowing what. We go to the finanical aid office and I mean it felt like a freaking DMV. </p>
<p>Their were only four advisors there and they were trying to get through each person as fast as possible with out going to major indepth with each person. I was very ticked off since this is an office that is supposed to deal with over 40,000 students. It was in a small office with a line of chairs and after one person was done we played musical chairs and scooted down.</p>
<p>I finally got to one of the advisors with a sac of documents in one hand. I explained to her that we just drove from oregon and did not want this fast pace crap goin on. She did not give a crap she told me to fill out all the paper work that I messed up on and to file it again.</p>
<p>Thats what I did, after an hour of very calculated examinations of the mistakes i made on the last form. I filed a new and very correct one without my fathers truck expenses. This made the documents make alot more sense and gave it to the advisor. She told me they would take a look at this again and within two-three weeks they would update the award.</p>
<p>I pray, I pray that this gets fixed, because I know, oh yes I know! </p>
<pre><code> the Battle of Financial Aid aint over!!!
</code></pre>
<p>OOOOOHHHH, this one hit a nerve with me!!! It is after 10 at night. I just finished reading the many emails that I didn’t get to at work today. Again, it is 10 at night. I spent all day working my rear off, trying to get students taken care of. I worked through most of my lunch (as I often do). I did leave 10 minutes early to beat the traffic so I could get to a dr’s appt with my daughter. My bad. I just finished an email from a young man who sent my big boss an email because apparently I am not moving fast enough for him. Let’s see … I still haven’t finished the pile my coworker left for me when she left (she said all her work was done - yeah, right). This kid wants an ACG for summer … we do not drop anyone from classes because their balance isn’t paid … nothing is going to happen to him if I don’t get his aid posted yet. I told him that already. I guess I need to drop everything else & finish him up. </p>
<p>Can you tell I am frustrated? Yes, I am a financial aid officer. Welcome to my life.</p>