My son is 17, turning 18 in February (next month). I did the FAFSA and got the results today. He is not eligible for the federal Pell grant, and I suspect the reason why is that he is not registered for Selective Service. On the FAFSA I did check off the automatic enrollment when he turns 18. I’m pretty positive he would quality for the grant - my husband only earns $37K per year and I’m unemployed, we have no assets, cash, just rent (not own a property). So do I have to re-do the FAFSA after my son turns 18 and is registered with Selective Service? Or is it automatically updated?
@kelsmom can you answer this?
Did you get a SAR, student aid report? Does it have a EFC listed?
He can register as early as 30 days before his birthday.
[Quote]
The law says men must register with Selective Service within 30 days of their 18th birthday. That means men are required to register with Selective Service sometime during the 30 days before their 18th birthday, their 18th birthday, and the following 29 days after their 18th birthday – that is a 60-day registration period.
So it sounds like they can go to the SS website and register soon, if not today.
http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=14552531&ex_cid=espnapi_internal
Thanks, all! His birthday isn’t until the end of February, so looks like I have to wait another couple of weeks before he can register. I still don’t know if I need to do something else besides this though. Will the FAFSA automatically update based on the selective service registration? I did get the SAR and EFC, by the way. The EFC was over $10K.
Then I don’t think the selective service registration is the problem. With $37,000 income there should not be that high of a EFC!
Go over all the fields. Is there an extra zero, parent income in student section or anything like that?
If your EFC is over 10k (and I agree with mommdc- that seems high), then that is the reason he’s not Pell-eligible. It has nothing to do with SS registration.
<<<<
my husband only earns $37K per year and I’m unemployed,
[QUOTE=""]
[/QUOTE]
How do you have an EFC of $10k if that is your income? What assets do you have?
BTW…that EFC is too high for Pell. EFC has to be about $6k or below.
Thank you again to everyone! I think I figured it out. Yes, my husband’s income was $37K all last year, but I DID work for most of 2015. I’ve only been unemployed for 3 months. So I calculated our family income to be around $86,000 last year. So THAT is why (I believe) it calculated our EFC high and also made the determination that we were ineligible for the Pell grant. Very disappointing but just wanted to post here again to thank everyone and to let others who may be following this about the final outcome.
How does the displaced worker question affect FAFSA EFC?
<<<
Yes, my husband’s income was $37K all last year, but I DID work for most of 2015. I’ve only been unemployed for 3 months. So I calculated our family income to be around $86,000 last year.
[QUOTE=""]
[/QUOTE]
??
didn’t you recently fill out FAFSA? If so, why are you just now figuring out that you put $86k (including your income) rather than just the $37k your H earned?
Anyway… How did you answer the displaced worker question?
At some point, if you don’t soon find a job, you can ask the schools if they’ll adjust your EFC. Now that the holidays are over, finding a new job may not be as difficult. Many companies don’t hire after October/Nov. Good luck.
Yes, I realize I was wrong only considering my husband’s 37K income last year. And, yes, I also am wondering how the displaced worker situation comes into play (because I did check that I was a displaced worker). I was only unemployed for 2 months last year, BUT I have no idea when I will find another job again. It might be 2 weeks from now or 6 months! How does that come into play as far as the EFC goes. I don’t know.
What state do you live in? You might contact the school he chooses to attend if in the next few months you are still unemployed to see if they can use professional judgment.
Yes, the $10k EFC seems in line with your income.
The displaced worker question isn’t that part of the simplified needs or auto 0 EFC test? But isn’t the first requirement that the income be under $50,000 or $25,000?
@kelsmom How does the displaced worker question affect this situation? Was the income too high last year for it to make a difference? Since the primary breadwinner lost her job and is still unemployed, does she contact the child’s school and request professional judgement?
Penny…the schools will likely want to wait and see if you soon find another job. They don’t like reducing an EFC to Pell amounts at this point, because if you were to find a job within the next couple months, your income for 2016 could be $85k again.
Are you receiving unemployment? Were you given a severence package?
I don’t know how unemployment payments will affect any of this.
Displaced worker only helps if you are under $50k in income, then it gets you to the Simplified Assets test and you get to skip all the asset questions if you met the other requirements, including 1040A. It is not an immediate ticket to Pell.
The FA officer can certainly give professional judgment on that. If son knows which school he’s going to, fill out the appeal forms and submit with the documents (they want termination letter, unemployment insurance amounts and duration, etc).
Displaced worker is one of the criteria (in addition to the income threshold) that can make one eligible for simplified needs test (income under $50,000) or auto $0 EFC (income under $30,000). With an income of >$85,000 for the year, the student would not be eligible for either of these.