Independent Student with no income

kelsmom
Wed, 22 Mar 2017 00:30:20 +0000

The first year as an independent students presents some issues in terms of what to report. Because the federal formula expects parents to pay for the dependent student’s schooling, I do not expect a newly-independent student to claim as other income the money a parent paid for school for the last year he was dependent. If the parent pays money for the year in which a student is considered independent for financial aid purposes, then it definitely should be reported as other income for that year. Other aid officers could interpret that differently, because there is no actual regulation covering this - it becomes a matter of interpretation/policy & the school has to treat all students in a similar situation using the same interpretation/policy.