FAFSA mistake discovered after submission - will they contact me?

You need to submit a correction ASAP. They won't reach out to you - it's your responsibility to fix mistakes. Log into studentaid.gov, go to your submitted FAFSA, and select the 'Make FAFSA Corrections' option. You'll need to update the section with your father's income. The good news is that properly excluding retirement income should definitely lower your SAI score, potentially qualifying you for more aid. Make sure to submit the correction at least 10 days before your school's priority deadline to ensure it's processed in time.

Chill out. They're not gonna email u or anything lol. U gotta fix it urself. Had the same thing happen with my mom's income. As long as u fix it before your school starts packaging ur aid ur fine

Same boat! I put my stepdad's income in the wrong section and only realized two weeks later. Just submitted the correction yesterday. Fingers crossed it works out for both of us!

Financial aid officer here. No, they will NOT reach out about this type of error. The Department of Education processes millions of FAFSAs - they don't have the capacity to manually review and contact students about potential mistakes like this. You absolutely need to submit a correction yourself once your initial application finishes processing (typically 3-5 business days). Retirement income is excluded from FAFSA calculations, so fixing this will likely significantly improve your SAI score. If your initial FAFSA is still processing, you'll need to wait until it completes before you can submit corrections. Keep trying every day. Also, notify the financial aid offices at your prospective schools about the pending correction so they're aware of the situation.

THIS SYSTEM IS SO BROKEN!! I've had to make 4 different corrections to my FAFSA this year and EACH TIME it was because their instructions were confusing as hell!! Why do they make this process so complicated?? And good luck reaching anyone on their helpline - I spent 2.5 HOURS on hold last week before getting disconnected. The whole system is designed to fail students.

I'm going to disagree slightly with some comments here. While it's true the Dept of Education won't proactively reach out to you, they DO sometimes select applications for verification where they'll request additional documentation. However, this typically happens later in the process and isn't designed to catch the specific type of error you made. You definitely need to submit that correction yourself once your initial application processes (usually 3-5 days after submission). I recommend downloading the SAR (Student Aid Report) after your correction processes to verify the changes took effect. The SAR will show your calculated SAI score which will help you understand your aid eligibility.

i had this same exact problem last year lmao. i accidentaly included my moms 401k distribution and it made my SAI way higher. school gave me no money, got rejected from scholarships, ended up having to take a semester off and reapply. definitely get that fixed!!!!

Just to clarify for everyone: The 2025-2026 FAFSA now includes the Student Aid Index (SAI) which replaced the old Expected Family Contribution (EFC). When reporting parent income, retirement contributions and distributions have specific guidelines. Contributions to retirement accounts generally don't affect your SAI calculation, while qualified distributions used for education expenses are treated differently from other withdrawals. The specific rule the OP needs to focus on is that income from retirement accounts shouldn't be reported as additional income if it was already counted in the AGI on the tax return.

UPDATE: I was finally able to submit my correction today! The error message went away after 4 days. For anyone else dealing with this issue - just keep checking back every day. Now I'm just nervously waiting to see how much my SAI changes and if it will arrive in time for my school's aid packaging. Thanks everyone for your help and advice!