The updated application for federal financial aid has caused many low-income applicants to accidently file as millionaires, a costly mistake that could impact the amount of federal aid they receive.
The 2014-15 online application for Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) has several fields that have been updated so that higher incomes could fit into the text box. Some low-income students aren’t seeing a separate .00 field and a filter is removing commas and decimals from the text box.
This means that when a student types $30,918.29 into the text field, the system may change this number to $3,091,829 by removing the decimal. In an instant, low income students are mistakenly filed as millionaires.
Jeff Baker, a policy liaison at the Education Department’s Office of Federal Student Aid acknowledged the how serious this issue is during annual meeting for the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators and expressed the need to fix it.
So far the department has found 165,000 people who have been affected by this problem, though there may be even more.
Catching this mistake is important so that students don’t miss out on need-based financial aid or Pell Grants.
Most colleges will have at least one student who this issue has impacted, estimated Baker. Some may have hundreds.
For affected students who have already gotten their aid, their colleges will have to reprocess the FAFSA forms. Reprocessing will begin in mid-July and the adjusted student aid amounts should be announced by late July.
Students who are eligible should still get their aid. Colleges may additional difficulties if their allotted award money has already been used before the fixes are in place.
Any student who has questions or concerns about their FAFSA applications should get in touch with their financial aid offices right away.
