My children are 18 & almost 20… One is starting college and the other is in their 2nd year. They are living with their grandmother in a different town that is closer to their school. I have lega custody and this past year they were eligible for their FASFA based on my income However, they did not live with me. Their grandmother said she was told by the FASFA office that she would need to get a guardianship form on my kids in order to be able to file their FASFA next year under her household and income. I am just trying to figure out how that would work with them being over the age of 18 to do a guardianship form… My income was close to the limit last year for their FASFA and their grandmother would more than qualify…I just don’t understand how the guardianship form will help at the ages of 18 & 20
I’m going to ask the user to repost without all caps. I’ll copy and paste the post for him/her.
You need to separate taxes from FAFSA filing. They are different and have different definitions of ‘dependent’.
I don’t believe they can get a guardianship (except for an adult who has medical or financial need of a guardian) that will help them for college financial aid.
There is no income ‘limit’ to file a FAFSA. Do you mean they’d get more money in federal aid if they used their grandmother’s information? Follow the directions, but unlikely it can be done. Most people would get more financial aid if they used a relative’s information and not their working parent’s.
Unless grandma legally adopts your children, they will never receive financial aid based on her income and assets. Her info will never be used on the FAFSA
Even if your children were deemed independent due to court ordered legal guardianship, they would still not use grandma’s income and assets
Sorry, but they will receive financial aid based on your income and assets. Even if they did not live with you , as dependent students the custodial parent is the person that they lived with the most in the previous 12 months
If they lived equally with both parents who are not married to each other or who do not live together they provide info from the parent who has provided the most support.
The new thread is [url=<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1909990-guardianship-over-age-18.html#latest%5Dhere%5B/url”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1909990-guardianship-over-age-18.html#latest]here[/url].
They are over the age of 18. I believe the guardianship issue boat has sailed. They would have needed to be in legal guardianship prior to age 18.
Tax filing status doesn’t matter…at all.
Your financial information will be what your kids need to provide…even if residing with grandma. The older one has done so…you said.
So what is the issue?
And what “limit for FAFSA” for income are you talking about?
Bottom line…they can’t use grandma even if she IS their legal guardian. When kids are in legal guardianship (but I think this has to be established prior to age 18…@kelsmom??) they would be independent for financial aid purposes.
Do their colleges guarantee to meet full need fo all accepted students? If not…this financial tap dance you want to do might make no difference at all in their need based financial aid awards.
Guardianship is a legal status. OP has said she is their legal guardian (but I agree this may be confused, since they’re over 18.) She has not said responsibility for the children was terminated for cause. As I see it, OP retains the full definition of “parent” - unless some info is missing, some court action or some such.
If grandma wants to claim an exemption for them on her own taxes, as supporting them, that’s a different issue than how finaid defines parent.
What did she ask the Fafsa folks? Think something is confused.
- Lots of kids live elsewhere during college and/or summers, some with family. So what's missing here?
In my experience, questions are often asked in such a way that answers are wrong simply because of the way the question was worded. These kids will not be able to be independent due to guardianship - the guardianship has to be in effect when the student turns 18.
This is why the means-based FA system is broken…
Why do you think the means based FA system is broken?
The more a family earns…the less they receive in need based aid. Above a certain income threshold, no federally funded grants are given.
What is wrong with this?
What’s wrong is that it’s turned into a cynical manipulation circus for hiding assets and playing games w custody.
Well in this case anyway…grandma cannot ever be the guardian of these over 18 year old students. They will need to use their parent asset on the FAFSA.
In addition, if they put someone other than the oarent, they would need to provide documentation that the person listed adopted them.
If you have the means to play games with assets, there is a 95%+ chance your income is going to put you out of federal FA contention anyway. Assets are assessed at a max of 5.6% whereas income is the bulk of your EFC.
These students will not be able to use grandma’s information.
But I’ll give you this. The means-based system is broke. Max pell in my state only gets you about 1/2 the cost of tuition even at the directions. Not COA… tuition. And it is about 1/6 of the COA at the largest public colleges. That’s ridiculous.
I’m not sure anyone is trying to game. I think grandma was confused in what she asked. She may have asked something as simple as, well, I house and feed these kids, OP pays next to nothing, whose financial info?
Fafsa confuses some of this. But they say this, for whose financial info is needed on the application:
“A legal parent includes a biological or adoptive parent, or a person that the state has determined to be your parent (for example, when a state allows another person’s name to be listed as a parent on a birth certificate). Grandparents, foster parents, legal guardians, older brothers or sisters, widowed stepparents, and aunts and uncles are not considered parents unless they have legally adopted you.”
OP is the parent, the person whose info is needed. My interpretation, from what little we know from OP. If there’s some twist, OP needs to say.
- If you are the legal custodial parent of these kids, YOUR information must be included on the FAFSA, regardless of where they live.
- "They were eligible for FAFSA based on my income" what do you mean? Anyone can complete a FAFSA. It's a financial aid application form. The FAFSA itself gives out NO money.
Do you mean your kids were eligible for a Pell Grant, or part of it, based on your income?
- Your kids can NOT use their grandmother's financial information on their FAFSA at all unless she adopted them...and you gave up all parental rights. If grandma was the legal guardian, your kids would not put any parent financial info on the FAFSA. But that would have needed to happen prior to age 18.
I think grandmother misunderstood what the FAFSA folks told her. Or,she asked the wrong question.
- You say your kids filed their FAFSA forms with your information last year. From what you have written here, they would still need to do so for the upcoming school year.
- And lastly, the 2017-2018 FAFSA will use your income from the 2015 tax year. Did you know that? Same as for the 2016-2017 FAFSA. So, you will use your 2015 tax return to complete the 2017-2018 FAFSA.
Which FAFSA are you concerned about? The 2016-2017 FAFSA should have already been completed for your two kids.
The 2017-2018 FAFSA will need to be done for the 2017-2018 academic year.
Same income info for 2017-2018 FAFSA…so if they qualified for a Pell in 2016-2017, they should also for 2017-2018. Unless you have huge assets to report!!
Where you may have a sticking point is that you state g-ma supported your kids. In addition to your income assets being used on the FAFSA any monies paid on their behalf, by grandma must also go on the fafsa
@sybbie719, I 'm not sure if that means that if grandma supplied them with free housing and food, they need to report that on the FAFSA? Or just if grandma paid bills in their name on their behalf or gave cash support to the grandkids?
@kelsmom can you clarify?
Where it is going to get sticky is for g-ma to file children as dependents on her taxes, they should be living with g-ma 50% of the time and g-ma is providing 50% of support. IF g-ma is giving them money, purchasing their books, paying toward their school, then monies must go on the FAFSA.
“Cash support.” (Can take many forms, but the usual implication is over and above the usual family relationships, small exchanges.) You don’t need to report grandma gave gas money, bought groceries, or paid for a dinner out. And if they live with her, she isn’t paying their rent. (Not “cash support.”) Sometimes, one has to interpret the intent of the questions Fafsa asks. A 529 is different, as is a 10k gift.
I do think some of the confusion comes from the "50% of the time, " which, for Fafsa, refers to unmarried, divorced or separated parents.
I thought that “paid on behalf” means that if the bill is in the student’s name, but someone else pays it for the student. Then it’s reportable but not if the grandma lets them live there free of charge. But not sure.