Upon completion of a FAFSA, we were informed that we qualified for $1300 in Pell Grants. Upon registering at the community college, we were informed that we weren't eligible for any financial aid and that there was no money available for any type of assistance. Why would we be eligible for $1300 and, then, denied any assistance by the college? The financial aid personnel said it was because they "corrected" the application to include a $2000 contribution to my husband's pension fund. This doesn't make any sense to me.
Thanks for your assistance.
ANSWER:
If your school made the correction because this contribution did occur and you had not entered it before, then your school did the right thing. It should have been reported under the "untaxed income" section. (In the printable FAFSA, this is question 92a.)
Your FAFSA was probably flagged, because there was a contradiction with the information supplied by the IRS. (This might have been because your W-2 listed the contribution in Boxes 12a through 12d, codes D, E, F, G, H and S.) The way the FAFSA formula is structured, income made during the year is still income- even if you were not able to use it yet.
You can go back into your FAFSA and see if your eligibility for the Pell grant has changed from when you did it before. You can also take your revised information and use the correct formula to figure it out yourself.
If a mistake was made, show it to the financial aid administrator at your school. It is entirely possible that this extra income would have bumped you out of the EFC range for a Pell grant. Your FAFSA would have said that you might be eligible for a Pell grant of up to $1,300. The grants also depend in part, on whatever your school says is your cost of attendance for school. Perhaps the amount that the school listed as your "cost" was lower than was estimated on your FAFSA.
If it turns out that the formula is correct, you can still appeal your financial aid for college if there are circumstances that are affecting (or will affect) your finances for the school year, which are not reflected in your FAFSA.
