<p>Very cool to find out the history of the Asset Protection Allowance! To distill that to plain english, the APA is intended to be the cost of an annuity to bring up the average social security benefit to an average moderate family income, for the oldest parent at 65. The problem is that the ratio of single to married has changed from 70% to about 40% over the past 13 years. </p>
<p>Either the wonks at the Dept of Educ have miscalculated somewhere, or the statistics actually support the fairness of the married-single discrepancy as Congress intended.</p>
<p>And, as is the case with many aspects of FAFSA, there is unfairness in its simplicity. This APA thing is an attempt to make a one size fits all solution, and what we have is a one size fits nobody solution instead.</p>