Proving Household Size ?

andloveyelledno
Mon, 16 Jul 2012 00:00:43 +0000

Recently I was selected for verification. I provided the necessary documents, such as W-2 forms, transcripts for both me and my parent, and the worksheet. Under the worksheet (and my FAFSA) I answered that there were 4 people under my household in which 50% of my parent’s income is used for support. A few days ago I received an e-mail telling me that an FAA had corrected my FAFSA, so I checked to see what their corrections were. They had changed my household size from 4 to 2, completely ignoring my sister (who is 27) and my grandmother.

As far as I know, my sister only works a part-time job and pays for no rent, utilities, food shopping, etc. I’ve been reading that grandparents are difficult to include in the household size, especially if they receive social security, which my grandmother does. Still, I put her because I know my mother does spend money on my grandmother because she has Parkinsons, also my grandmother doesn’t live here the entire year, just about 6 months or so which is why I think my mom didn’t claim her. I had no way of definitely knowing whether it’s “50%” or not. Perhaps I should not have included her. But what about my sister? My mom did not claim my sister on her 2011 tax returns, even though she told me she regrets it because she probably could have but she wasn’t sure if she was allowed to. My sister only made about 10-12k in 2011, definitely not enough to support herself, especially when she lives in my house for free, essentially. My mom pays for most things. I’ve read that exemptions don’t necessarily have to reflect household size, so.

I’m going to head over to my college’s financial aid office tomorrow but I was wondering how I can possibly prove that my sister receives over 50% of my mom’s income in support, what kind of documentation could I expect to be asked for? I’m not sure how I can necessarily prove that. All my mom can do is estimate expenses but it’s not like she can give documentation that says she pays for this, this, and this, unless it’s a letter from her (which I’m not sure is okay?). How can I go about changing my household size to about 3 and proving that change, if need be. I’m not sure if it was a mistake on their part who knows. This is important because my EFC has been increased because of that household correction, which is a correction that is wrong and I’m not sure what the basis was for that change. Any quick help would be so appreciated!