FAFSA household size question: Can I include boyfriend and his mother? Affects Pell Grant eligibility

this is tricky! fafsa rules say household members have to be people you support financially and will keep supporting during the academic year. so if you're providing more than 50% support for your bf and his mom then maybe? but if he claims his mom as his dependent on taxes that means HE supports HER not you... so confused lol

For FAFSA household size, the rules are specific: you include yourself, your dependent children, and other people who live with you, receive more than half their support from you, and will continue to receive that support during the award year. The key question is: Are you providing more than 50% of the financial support for your boyfriend and his mother? If so, they should count in your household size. The fact that your boyfriend claims his mother on his taxes doesn't necessarily prevent you from counting them in your FAFSA household if you're truly providing the majority of their support. Increasing your household size from 3 to 5 could significantly impact your son's SAI calculation and potentially qualify him for Pell Grant funds. I would recommend submitting a correction right away.

I had something kinda similar with my stepdad who wasnt married to my mom yet but lived with us. Financial aid office told us if he wasnt legally married to my mom and wasnt my legal parent we couldnt count him. Maybe check with your schools financial aid office before changing anything??

This is an important distinction: for the 2024-2025 FAFSA, the concept of "household size" works differently than previous years with the new SAI formula. The key factor is who you provide more than 50% support for, regardless of who claims who on tax returns. For parent households on FAFSA, you include: 1. Yourself 2. Your spouse (if applicable) 3. Your children (including the student) 4. Other people who live with you AND receive more than 50% of their support from you If you truly provide the majority of financial support for your boyfriend and his mother, they should be included. However, be prepared to document this if selected for verification. I'd recommend contacting the school's financial aid office directly before making changes, as they can run a preliminary calculation to see if the adjusted household size would impact your son's Pell eligibility.

I spent HOURS trying to reach someone at Federal Student Aid about a similar household question last month. The wait times were ridiculous - I kept getting disconnected after 30+ minutes of waiting. Finally used a service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that got me through to an actual FAFSA agent in about 15 minutes. They have this video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ The agent told me that for household size questions, what matters most is who lives with you AND who you financially support by more than 50%. They said tax filing status isn't the determining factor - it's about actual financial support. Correcting our household size made a $3,500 difference in my daughter's aid package.

the whole fafsa system is BROKEN!!!! my nephew has 8 people in his household and still got zero pell grants. meanwhile my coworkers kid got full pell with just her and her mom. makes NO SENSE how they calculate this stuff. good luck but dont get your hopes up

wait i'm confused do u mean 5 or 6 people? in your title u said 6 but in your post u said 5 (you, 2 kids, boyfriend, his mom)??

One more important note: If you do submit a correction, do it as soon as possible. Many schools have already allocated their institutional funds, and while Pell Grants are entitlement-based (meaning you'll get what you qualify for regardless of when you apply), other types of aid may be depleted. Also, be aware that correcting your household size may trigger verification, where you'll need to provide documentation of your support for these additional household members. This could include: - Rent/mortgage statements showing you as the primary payer - Utility bills in your name - Records of groceries and other household expenses - Proof that your boyfriend's mother lives with you But if you're providing 70% of their support as you mentioned, this change is absolutely worth pursuing and could significantly increase your son's aid eligibility.

When my cousin updated her household size it took FOREVER to process the correction! Like almost 2 months!! And by then they said all the grant money was gone except for the Pell. So if u do update it DO IT NOW!!!

I'm new here but dealing with a similar household confusion! My situation isn't quite the same but I wanted to share what I learned when I called my school's financial aid office last week. They told me that the most important thing is being able to prove you provide more than 50% support if you get selected for verification. They also mentioned that even if you fix the household size, it might not guarantee Pell eligibility depending on your income level - but it's definitely worth trying since household size is such a big factor in the new SAI formula. One thing that helped me was making a simple spreadsheet showing all monthly expenses and who pays what percentage. That way if they ask for documentation later, you have it organized already. Good luck getting this sorted out before fall semester!

Just wanted to chime in as someone who went through a household size correction last year! The key thing that helped me was documenting EVERYTHING before making the change. I created a monthly budget breakdown showing exactly how much I was contributing vs. the other household members. When I called my school's financial aid office, they actually ran a preliminary SAI calculation with the updated household size before I submitted the correction - this way I knew it would make a meaningful difference. In my case, going from 3 to 5 household members dropped my SAI by about $4,000 and qualified my daughter for a partial Pell Grant. One heads up though - the verification process was pretty thorough. They wanted 3 months of bank statements, utility bills, grocery receipts, and a signed statement from me explaining the living arrangement and support provided. But it was 100% worth the hassle for the additional aid we received. Definitely call the financial aid office first before making any FAFSA changes. They can walk you through exactly what documentation you'll need and give you a realistic expectation of how it might impact your son's aid package. Time is definitely of the essence here!

Just wanted to add that I went through something very similar with my son's FAFSA this year! We had my elderly father living with us and I was providing most of his support, but I initially didn't include him in our household size because he receives Social Security. After talking to our financial aid counselor, I learned that Social Security income doesn't disqualify someone from being counted in your household if you're still providing more than 50% of their total support. The counselor explained that you look at ALL their expenses (housing, food, medical, etc.) and if you're covering more than half, they should be included. In your case, even though your boyfriend's mom gets Social Security and he claims her on taxes, if you're truly covering 70% of everyone's living expenses, both of them should probably be counted. The tax dependency and the FAFSA household size rules are completely separate things. I'd definitely recommend calling the school's financial aid office before making changes though. Our counselor was able to walk me through exactly how to document everything and even gave me a rough estimate of how the correction would affect our SAI. The whole process took about 3 weeks once I submitted the correction, and my son ended up qualifying for about $2,800 more in Pell Grant money. Don't give up - household size corrections can make a huge difference with the new FAFSA formula!

I'm new to this community but wanted to share what I just learned from my own FAFSA household situation! I had a similar dilemma with my stepmom who isn't legally married to my dad yet but lives with us. After reading through all these responses, I called my school's financial aid office yesterday and they were super helpful. The advisor told me that the 50% support rule is the key factor - not marriage status, not who claims who on taxes, but who actually provides the majority of financial support. She also mentioned something really important: with the new FAFSA formula this year, household size has a much bigger impact on your SAI than it did with the old EFC system. So getting this right could make a significant difference in aid eligibility. For anyone in this situation, definitely call your school's aid office first! Mine was able to do a quick calculation to show me how changing household size would affect my aid before I made any corrections. That way you know if it's worth going through the verification process. Hope this helps - sounds like Sophia has gotten some great advice here and I'm rooting for you to get this sorted out!