Some of the changes are the culmination of years of discussion: SAI, fewer questions. The push for years has been to move the FAFSA to a tool that measures eligibility for federal aid. The Department of Education had already determined that many questions on the FAFSA don’t make a difference for federal aid … so the streamlined questions are a reflection of what ED’s data shows actually makes a difference for Pell and SEOG. As is normal when rules are made to try to help the most people in the most efficient manner, it’s not perfect. But the idea has been that if schools want additional information to distribute their own aid, they can feel free to collect that on their own (I envision a Profile-like form that perhaps schools will pay a vendor to process).
Some of the other changes … wow. I do not get the reasoning for the change to adjusting EFC due to number of dependents in college. I can think of so many students I have known over the years that would have lost Pell eligibility because of that change. The change to using the parent who earns more is not one I had ever heard discussed in financial aid circles, but it makes sense.
Removing the 150% Pell rule is a win. The manpower required to track this is not insignificant, and it doesn’t help students. I don’t see it helping taxpayers, either. So good riddance to that rule.
It looks like the bill gives financial aid administrators the ability to change income to 0 if there is evidence of receiving unemployment. There was a similar rule in the Obama administration during the last recession. It made it much easier for aid administrators to help students qualify for a Pell grant during a national crisis. Personally, I saw good & bad with that, but there are always good/bad things when stopgap programs are implemented. The thought is that it gives help in a relatively efficient manner.