Since I started school, I’ve had a pell grant that lets me afford my textbooks, supplies, and some money on the side when I have broke months. I’m married, and in the 2013 tax season, we filed our taxes separately because I was afraid it would effect my financial aid. Filing separately became a total pain because then I had a bunch of holds on my financial aid while I sent my husbands info to the school through the IRS and it took forever to get done. So this year I decided to file jointly with my spouse so it would just go more smoothly. He makes thousands of dollars more than me, and we do not combine our income and share it. That’s just how our marriage is, and we’re fine with it. I don’t rely on him for money.
I quit my job in November of 2014 so I can focus on school. My parents send me a certain amount of money per month that covers rent and some bills and a little bit for food. Really the bare minimum, which is fine because the pay off is that I don’t have to go to work and can just go to school. With the money I made before I quit my jobs, and the money my husband makes, combined, raised my EFC and now I don’t qualify for pell grants anymore. This makes me really angry because now I’m unemployed and lost my federal grants, and the logic doesn’t make sense to me that they use last years income information to determine how much to give you the following year, regardless if you’re still working or not. Has anyone been through this? Is there anything I can do? I really don’t want to take out a loan for the last 3 semesters of school, but I might not have a choice.
Your tax filing status does not matter. If you are married, you are required to provide your husband’s income on the FAFSA regardless of how you file your taxes.
Yes, I know that. My issue is that with my husbands income combined with the income I had before I quit my job, has now raised my EFC and disqualified me to receive pell grants for 2015. I don’t have a job anymore, and there was no way for me to convey that I won’t be making any income in 2015, so I’m kind of screwed.
You could ask for a review by the financial aid office and tell them your situation, but I really doubt you would get anything since you quit (not laid off) and you and your husband choose not to share money. That’s your choice, but Pell grants and other school financial aid are determined by family income, not what those earning the money want to share. If you weren’t married, FAFSA would require your parents to submit financial info, and it wouldn’t matter if you didn’t want to work or your parents didn’t want to share their money. It happens to many many students - they can’t make their parents provide money, yet they don’t qualify for Pell grants.
You can be really angry, but it doesn’t change anything.
I understand and respect your decision not to want to share money with your husband or have him support you financially. Unfortunately, the way the financial aid system works is based on household income. Your decision not to use any money that your husband brings into your household is not something that the financial aid system is really equipped to handle; after all, anyone can say that and it could become abusive in other situations. (“Oh, my husband is a billionaire but he doesn’t share any money with me…”)
You can try for a professional judgment but I don’t see why a college would grant it to be honest. The college has no interest or understanding in your personal financial arrangements within your marriage. One thing that might help is that if your Pell grant is really only for supplies, books, etc. that it may be possible for you to find a small scholarship awarded by your college or department for that amount. If that doesn’t work, your college may also have work/study opportunities available; working on-campus can be easier to manage than working off-campus since the on-campus employer knows that the workers are students and acknowledges their class schedules in ways that other jobs might not. It is a tough situation though but hopefully something can come through for you so that you don’t have to borrow money this year.
Are you seriously "really angry’?? Speaking as a taxpayer, I would be “really angry” if you got a Pell grant because you voluntarily decided to stop working and you and your husband have an unorthodox approach to family finances. If you need money, you can get another job and “borrow” from your spouse, for heavens sake.
If you wanted financial aid to treat you as a single person you should have remained a single person. What did you expect, you were in college and knew how aid works.
trying to clarify.
You recieve money from your parents, your husband seemingly makes enough to support both of you, but you feel you should be eligible for Pell, which is for the lowest income students.
Why, again?
To be fair, I think her cash flow problems are more related to the fact that she quit her job. She was married and receiving parental support in the previous years and still had Pell eligibility so it’s not really the marriage that’s complicating issues, just the fact that she had a job and higher household income in the year in question but not the actual year that she’s going to school.
That being said, there’s not much a college can do about this in terms of Pell eligiblity. As other posters indicated a parent choosing not to support a child’s education or one spouse choosing not to support the other is a family decision; if they adjusted aid for that they would have to give a full ride to anyone who said, “oh, even though we are married and live together we don’t share finances at all,” If the job loss was a result of a layoff or something like that then you could check the box as a ‘dislocated worker’ but that doesn’t apply to someone who quits a job to spend more time on school.
I would suggest getting a oart time job to cover these expenses. If you work 10 hours a week, you should be able to do so.
Adding…if the OP had kept her job, no question the household income would have exceeded that for Pell eligibility. My guess…she quit thinking that this reduced income would make her Pell eligible. Nope.
To the OP…if you left your job on good terms, perhaps they have a part time one available for you. Worth asking.
Most people I know went to school full-time while holding down full-time jobs. I understand not wanting to work while you’re in school, but you aren’t the first student who can’t afford that luxury. If you don’t have enough money to cover your expenses and your spouse, parents, and/or school won’t cover them, your options are to get a job or accept the federal student loans. Unless the money is due right now, I’d suggest getting a job over getting yourself into debt.
Why?
[ul]
[] Student loans have low interest rates
[] Hourly rate at work is likely to be minimum wage without a degree, perhaps 3x or more with a degree
[li] She is 3 semesters from graduation[/li][/ul]
Under those conditions, why not take a loan? Keep up the grades, get a great job after graduation, and pay off the loan quickly; maybe 3x or more quickly than if you tried to work now and took the hit to your grades. Some combination is actually the prudent path.
Would your husband be willing to loan you the money you need?
Perhaps a limited part time job at fast food or Wallyworld? The home health agency that I moonlight for takes people for as little as 10 hours per week, maybe less.
Some of these responses are hilarious. Some of them are smart. It’s okay, guys. The pell grant I got was like $200 extra bucks every few months. It payed for my books, which are insanely expensive. That’s why i’m bummed out. I am not wealthy by any means. My parents give me rent money and some money to pay my dental bills, i’m pretty much living the bare minimum. Which is fine, because I would rather stay at home and work on my studies so I can get into a UC. I have been working for the past 15 years non-stop and working a job while balancing 5 classes a semester was destroying me and effected my grades, so I’m taking a time off from working to concentrate on finishing school so I can transfer to a good university. I’ll be working while I earn my Bachelor’s. You can all continue arguing and speculating on my personal life and circumstances now.
Drop the 'tude. There simply isn’t a lot of advice we can give you. You want to not work, not take loans, and want the government (we tax payers) to pay for your books and incidentals. While your husband refuses to help you.
Your life choices have ramifications. The federal government issues grants for people who cannot afford the payments, not to people who have assets and choose not to use them. If the government issued money to couples who choose your lifestyle, then all married students would set up similar arrangements in order to get free money for college. Many, many students work while studying, even if it means taking fewer classes each semester and taking more years to graduate. Tax payers cannot afford to put everyone through school, plain and simple.
Every student would prefer to graduate without loans. But that is not an option for many students. Do you not take the federal direct loans? They are at reasonable interest and would help you to not work. With a decent job and adjustable payments, they would be affordable to pay back. Or, as I suggested, your husband can loan you the money without interest.
I don’t have a “'tude”, i’m just saying that some people need to calm down. The pell grant money wasn’t that much, but it helped out on little things, like textbooks, which can get super expensive. I want to not work so I can focus on school, get good grades, and get into a good University. I would hardly say that’s criminal aspirations. I don’t want to take out loans, because if I can avoid it, which I have been doing so far, I would like to not be in debt. I would say that those are pretty standard feelings that everyone shares. Who wants to be in debt if they can help it? I would rather be living on what little I have, with the help from whatever I can get through the school, that doesn’t require me to go into debt.
I don’t expect my husband to financially support me, and vice versa. That’s our own personal relationship, and I think it’s hilarious that you think you can dictate what I should do with my own marriage. I know plenty of other married couples who do not rely on their spouse for finances. We have our own money, or own income, if it’s an emergency, I have no problem asking for help. But I’m never going to expect him to pay for my schooling. He doesn’t make that much money anyway, with the cost of living where we are.
“The federal government issues grants for people who cannot afford the payments”. I cannot afford to buy books with the amount of money that I have. I think that qualifies me for that. You seem to think I have some huge amount of disposable income, when I don’t. I get rent money, money to pay bills, and $100 for transportation (costs about $60 a month for me to commute 2 hours to school every day) and some food for a whole entire month. So where are my assets that I supposedly choose not to use? My husbands money? That’s not an option. He is not my personal bank. I would like all the help I can get, from all the available resources that the school can give me to get through school without having to be broke all the time.
Going into school without debt isn’t an option for many students. That sucks for them. I would rather go through school without debt, and i’ll do whatever I can to not have debt. If it means that I’ll have to take out a loan if it comes to it, then fine. My original question was if anyone has dealt with this issue.