<p>In previous posts I noted that I might lose income given by ex to me for support of our daughter since his job was in jeopardy. He did lose it 2 weeks ago. He is 66 and hard of hearing, impairing his ability to work, so he is not likely to find anything. Our state does not have a legal separation, so there is no official, court-ordered child support, only our informal agreement, which he has been kind of intermittent about anyway because he is so disorganized. He will be hard pressed to survive on just Social Security and unemployment so it’s not realistic to think he’ll be able to pay anything for general support or college for daughter entering as freshman in the fall. Only my income was reported on FAFSA as daughter lives fulltime with me and I meet all qualifications for custodial parent, filed as divorced separated on FAFSA, and file taxes as Head of Household (none of that is in question about being correctly done). I reported the untaxed income on FAFSA line 94i, Other Income, not Child Support, since it isn’t a legally required payment. The FAAs and most of the posters here agree that it doesn’t really matter on which line it is reported in Question 94.</p>
<p>I talked to one of her colleges about the change in expected income for 2014. That FAA didn’t seem to be very informed or helpful. Just said they didn’t have FAFSA yet and that once I got offer from them, I should submit documentation of his change in employment status.</p>
<p>Today I talked to another FAA at a different college, who also doesn’t have FAFSA yet. That one said that colleges could use professional judgment and take off that income. However, that FAA recommended that I change FAFSA to show $0 income for other/child support in Question 94 for 2013. I asked if other colleges might wonder why it went from $19K (which I’ve changed to $15k because I accidently included a 2012 payment in 2013) to $0. Was told that it won’t matter and that verification only includes tax return info. Child support received is not ever reported on tax returns.</p>
<p>Just wondering what others, especially the FA professionals, think about this?</p>
<p>I am a financial aid professional, and I would NEVER advise you to tell anything but the truth on the FAFSA. You should not delete the amount … and if you did, it would surely prompt verification, anyway. You should use correct numbers and ask for a special circumstances review. Most colleges are not ready to review FAFSAs or handle special circumstances reviews quite yet, but you can begin to make inquiries regarding timing and process at each school.</p>
<p>I talked to another FAA at a different college after the conversation with FAA1. FAA2 agreed with you that I should not delete the amount and that there are severe penalties for lying on the FAFSA, which omitting income from whatever source in 2013 would be. I wonder if the FAA1 was trying to cut down on paperwork with special circumstances adjustments or if FAA1 really is just that inexperienced/misinformed. I even asked the original FAA1 how other colleges might react to the deleted info and was told it wouldn’t be a problem since verification only involves tax returns and received child support never is reported on tax returns. Just doesn’t sound right to me and I can’t imagine that it wouldn’t come back to haunt me some way or another.</p>
<p>The FAA2 raised another question that has caused me great concern. I told her that my tax status is Head of Household and FAFSA status is divorced/separated, explaining that we had been separated for over 5 years in a state with no legal separation status. IRS considers me unmarried for tax purposes since I meet all the conditions of Head of Household. She said I had to report ex income and assets because we aren’t divorced. I told her that instructions were very clear on FAFSA page 9 Notes that only info for custodial parent is to be reported when parents are separated and she says that unless things changed this year, that is not true. So, have I encountered yet another inadequately informed FAA, did that rule change just this year, or have I misread all the books, websites, and FAFSA instructions?</p>
<p>Since 3 FAAs have now told me that systems aren’t set up yet to receive this year’s FAFSA, I gathered that there are programming issues. May be normal for this time of year but this is my first time. At least my taxes are now filed electronically. How long should I wait until I try to use IRS Data Retrieval Tool to correct SAR?</p>
<p>It’s not gonna be pleasant having to tell 2 different FAAs that they are wrong so I can’t follow their instructions. Not the way to start a good relationship!</p>
<p>FAA2 is incorrect, as well. The FAFSA instructions are very clear - you are separated, and you should only report your info. The SCHOOL may have its own forms on which it would require your separated-H’s info, but it is definitely not reported on the FAFSA. Rules did not change this year.</p>
<p>The schools are not ready to receive the FAFSA because there is a lot of computer work that has to be done to get ready to do so … along with a lot of testing of the upgrades. It is very labor-intensive and time-consuming, and so many schools have cut manpower. </p>
<p>Great. It’s good to be right, but bad to have to tell the person with the purse strings that they are wrong. I could ask to be switched to a different FAA within the school FA office instead of the one assigned to our name, but that seems like it will also just open up a big can of hard feelings. YUK! This is all too hard to understand as it is, without having to deal with untrained and misinformed FAA. Thanks Kelsmom for your confirmation of what I thought.</p>
<p>Thanks Kelsmom. I sent FAA2 an email thanking her for her advice and how I re-visited some of the sources I’d researched before doing FAFSA. I also sent her the link from studentaid.ed.gov for 2013-14 that I got from somewhere on this site, since she said unless it changed this year, it has always been the rule to report both separated parents’ info . I copied the applicable section about separated parents and whose info to report, and highlighted the section referring to non-legally separated parents. I referenced the Notes section on page 9 of the FAFSA itself about reports for separated parents. Hopefully she will just take it factually and as a learning experience, rather than being insulted. This is bad advice from 2 of 3 schools, one private and one public. I’ll be curious to see what the other 2 I haven’t contacted of the 5 accepted schools tell me. Just makes me wonder how much incorrect instruction and incorrect financial aid that people get who don’t do their research and learn about the process. </p>