<p>My wife and I just got unemployed. She was making like 75K, and I was making like 50K.</p>
<p>I was working as a Nurse. I would like to retrain in a trade like Carpentry or plumbing. Yes we do own two homes, and have some savings, but technically, we are “unemployed.”</p>
<p>What are the chances I can get retraining, and still receive unemployment benefits. I received my first unemployment check.</p>
<p>financial aid for this school year is based on last year’s income. With a combined family income of 125K, you will not be eligible for Pell.</p>
<p>Mmmm, my husband was just recently unemployed as well.
Agree, normally, he (we) wouldn’t qualify for Pell.</p>
<p>But he did receive an invitation to retrain using a Pell grant from the Unemployment Office.
Maybe they are offering ‘special’ Pell $$ to unemployed right now?
He is considering different options and may look into it.</p>
<p>rune2402, did you also receive such a form regarding Pell?</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Is this “invitation to retrain” guaranteed money regardless of 2009 earnings? Or will you have to submit financial info to qualify? Is it possible that your H will get turned down once you have to report your 2009 earnings?</p>
<p>Yes, we are wondering the same.
It ‘seemed’ that it was guaranteed money connected to unemployment but we wouldn’t know until we investigated it further of course.</p>
<p>It could well be a ‘standard’ form sent to all new unemployment recipients and the Pell grant would still require applicant to meet financial criteria.</p>
<p>The invitations to retrain are sometimes quite misleading. Our governor sent out a similar letter last year, and it caused us a lot of headaches. The feds allow aid administrators to reduce income to 0 when someone is unemployed … but they do not require the aid administrator to reduce income to 0. We do NOT simply reduce to 0. We require a minimum period of unemployment before we will do a special circumstance review, and we take year to date earnings into account when making adjustments. </p>
<p>Another consideration … Pell is NOT available to anyone with a prior bachelors degree. Our governor failed to include that rather important point in the letter. In addition, we do not offer our institutional grants to anyone pursuing a 2nd bachelors, and loans are all that is available for grad students.</p>
<p>As far as retraining funds go, though: My state has a pretty sweet retraining program, No Worker Left Behind. Prior income is not relevant for our state program. It funds 2 years education for retraining purposes. It’s a HUGE pain for the financial aid & business offices of colleges, but it’s great for our older, unemployed students who are getting retraining. If your state has a similar program, it’s a great deal. For us, it doesn’t matter whether or not the student qualifies for Pell. If he does, it becomes part of the payment package on the business office end; there is no refund to students from any grants or training funding.</p>
<p><em>Maybe they are offering ‘special’ Pell $$ to unemployed right now?</em>
The short answer is, no. You COULD get a Pell if you qualify. The rules would still be the same for Pell. EFC adjustment requires a special circumstances review based on the school’s policies & procedures, and the student still has to meet the basic Pell criteria (no prior bach, adjusted EFC within Pell range, etc).</p>
<p>We live in PA, and our dept. of labor sent those notices to everyone who is on unemployment. It is indeed misleading, because there apparently aren’t any special programs available. (Some local community colleges are offering free tuition, though.) And of course if your former employer laid people off due to work going overseas, you’d qualify for tuition assistance through TRA (but only if the company has a TRA record on file with the dept. of labor). </p>
<p>Our sons’ school requires you to be unemployed for around six months before you can ask for special consideration, and even then it’s not a sure thing.</p>