I have a daughter in college currently and as a hard working, married couple we barely receive any financial aid and our child will come out of college in debt. Now, I have a niece entering college this fall. Her parents are divorced, the father has full legal custody. The mother lost all rights. On my niece’s FAFSA , they claimed the mother (who is 100% disbaled) had full legal custody. Me niece now has almost 95% of her $42,000 tuition (private, liberal art school) paid for. Both parents and my niece are bragging about this, as once again, they played the system and won. The dad is “legally separated” from current wife to save on taxes and not having to claim current wife’s income. They do live together still.
These people have a lot of luck and odds are they will not get caught, they play games like this all the time and win. So do I ruin my niece and turn them in? How do I turn them? The mother does live in a separate part of the state then where the daughter will graduate from, will this send up any flags?How is it fair, my daughter ( and others like us) will pay for being honest and my niece rewarded for lying. Would anyone else turn in a family member? I was told once 1 out 3 FAFSA is audited. Is this true?
I do apologize. This has been eating at me for months. I had someone offer to turn them so nothing came back to me. The family member keeps calling and bragging about daughter going to a private college for free and not a community college. We would tell them they will get caught, however, the past has proven that these people always win.
I’m a big believer in doing the right thing, but this screams “vindictive” to me.
You know the old line: “You’ve got to clean up your own back yard before you start on the one next door.”
I would drop this immediately. But I would let them know that I’m planning to hang up the phone each and every time they brag about cheating the system. Then I would hang up.
What is going to happen at the end of the year when the final transcripts are sent… And the school does not match up with the moms address? This may come back to bite them one day… or maybe not. In the meantime I would stay out of it and remove yourself from the conversation.
I’d tell them I thought what they did was underhanded and to please not brag to me about gaming the system but I’m not sure I’d sleep well at night knowing I’d gotten my niece kicked out of school. She already got dealt the sucky hand of a mother with no rights to her. In the end, this is on the parents, not the kid. Maybe the separation from them and a good education will make her better.
People have to live with their choices and I tend to see people who make these choices as pretty empty. Not a life I’d be jealous of.
@MoralDelemma Actually, the irony could be that they “think that they are gaming the system” and have screwed around with her residency AND get in trouble for that for nothing. They would have had to fill out two types forms for their private school (there are a couple exceptions), the FASFA and the CSS profile so the schools know the income and assets of both parents. The schools don’t care about their marriage status or the legal custody status, they just want to know what you can pay and the schools must know this. That would actually be sad if they get caught for changing her residency when it didn’t even matter.
It’s a technicality. Your niece is still a dependent student, so adding her mother’s info, who can’t work gets more financial aid. Plus it’s a private school and they use grant money donations from alumni. Your daughter is an independent student because she’s married. That means the school is expecting some kind of dual income.
@coolguy40 I don’t know about that because they also had to fill out a Profile which includes information about both parents, work and assets. OP might just be confused since FASFA does not ask about custody. If it was a FASFA only school, living with the mom could help. OP’s daughter is NOT married and independent.
I am just going to walk away from this. What done is done. Maybe someday this will come back to haunt them. It is difficult to work hard and be honest and see people lie, cheat and win. Maybe its jealously. I would love for my kids to go to school free, as would everyone. Guess I am glad that my taxes give these people a good lifestyle and college for free. I thank you all for your thoughts on this.
@MoralDelemma Your taxes didn’t give your niece free college. First, she would have had to work hard in school in order to be accepted into a college that would give her great aid and that is not easy to do. Second, because of the profile that private colleges ask for, the college would understand in great detail the financial situation of both parents. It doesn’t matter where your niece lives. Mom doesn’t earn anything and dad earns something. Based on that the private school gave your niece a financial package with money not from YOU a taxpayer but from it’s own funds. They get their own funds from donations from alumni etc… Now you could be mad at your family for other reasons but they did not cheat the system on this issue even if they think they did. And like I said, they could get in trouble for screwing with residency for no reason.
So to recap, your niece worked hard in school and is having her education paid for by the alumni of the school based on her need which is determined by the income and assets of both parents.