FAFSA and Parents Income

mom2collegekids
Mon, 17 Sep 2012 10:41:18 +0000

I am so sorry to hear about your issues.

I actually have a neighbor going thru a somewhat similar situation. Her H moved out (he has serious anger/depression/blaming issues), now has his paycheck deposited into an acct that ONLY he has access to, and isn’t giving her any money…she’s been a housewife for over 25 years. Since the utilities and other bills were AUTOPAY out of their joint acct and no money is there, things weren’t getting paid.

He even had her cell phone service shut off, while keeping his, of course. He also had his college D’s cell phone cut off because (of course) she’s angry at her dad and that’s his “payback” for his D “taking sides”. Luckily, she has a very large merit scholarship and a student loan, so they don’t have to depend on dad to pay her college costs.

He claims that he needs all his money to pay for his new household expenses, dating, gym membership, etc… He makes well over 100k per year. Her friends and family are buying food for her, keeping the utilites on, etc. Their home will likely get foreclosed and she’ll have to live with a sister. I don’t know much about divorce, but I sure hope that he’ll have to “back pay” her for not providing any support during the separation/divorce process. I don’t expect any kind of payback for the help I’ve given, but some others who may have given more may have done so with it being a “loan”. Either way, she should have recourse to get “back pay” since he left her “high and dry” while he is still earning a large amount of money.

There should be laws in place to prevent this kind of financial control that can happen when the sole breadwinner takes community property money (his earnings) and hoards it all for himself.

Since you have filed for divorce, then you file FAFSA as separated (or divorced if completed by that time). Only your income will get used on FAFSA no matter how your H files taxes.

It sounds like you’ll end up with a 0 EFC. At most schools, that only means that your D will get a 5550 Pell grant and a 5500 student loan.

Your d needs to protect herself by applying to some local state schools as safeties, but also some schools that are “test optional” and give good aid without NCP info.

The therapist is wrong to say that your D “will get a scholarship”. No one can depend on that unless she’s applying AND gets accepted to the few schools that give lots of aid.

And, since merit scholarships are often based on SAT scores, it doesn’t sound like she’d get one of those.

As you said, the therapist’s kids didn’t have to worry about money, so he may be guilty of believing the myth that low income kids get free rides to college. If that were true, our local CCs and state schools would NOT be filled with low income kids commuting and working to pay their college costs…