[Oasfaa] Earned Income Responses

[Laura Coponiti]

The draft of the 10-11 FAFSA tells the student and parent "if negative,
enter a zero here" so I think they are trying to make it clearer for the
upcoming year.

Laura Coponiti

-----Original Message-----
From: oasfaa-bounces at lists.onenet.net
[mailto:oasfaa-bounces at lists.onenet.net] On Behalf Of Jonna Raney
Sent: Wednesday, November 11, 2009 11:01 AM
To: oasfaa at onenet.net
Subject: [Oasfaa] Earned Income Responses

I had several that asked me to send responses to them, so I will summarize.
Most said they subtract them as we were doing.  Two said they treat
negatives as zeroes.

As Pam McConahy pointed out, it actually hurts the student if you subtract
the amount because they lose that amount in the FICA allowance deduction
which lowers the EFC.   

After reviewing the regs, I think it's pretty clear that we are to treat
them as zeroes, so that's what we will do from now on.  However, the FAFSA
instructions are not clear to the student so the only ones in this category
that will be correct are those that are selected for verification and are
corrected by the schools.  I plan to submit a comment to ED suggesting
clarification on the FAFSA instructions for the income from work questions.

Thanks for all the responses.  I feel better that we weren't the only ones
apparently doing it incorrectly. :-) 

Jonna