FAFSA only asked about Medicaid/social services - no income questions for parent contribution?

same happened with my daughter last week! feels like somethings broken with the system. we called fsa like 5 times and kept getting disconnected. super frustrating

This actually might be normal with the new simplified FAFSA. If your income is below a certain threshold (around $60,000 for a family of 4) AND you receive means-tested federal benefits like Medicaid, SNAP, etc., the system automatically qualifies your student for maximum aid without requiring additional financial information. The new FAFSA uses federal tax data directly from the IRS using the data sharing you authorized when creating accounts. Did you check the box allowing data to be imported from the IRS?

when i did mine it asked EVERYTHING. taxes, bank accounts, investments, the whole deal. somethings def wrong with yours

Financial aid advisor here - this is likely a technical issue with the new FAFSA system. There have been numerous glitches in the rollout. If you answered NO to receiving means-tested benefits AND your income is above the automatic qualification threshold, you absolutely should have been prompted for additional financial information. Several actions you should take immediately: 1. Take screenshots of your completed application showing it didn't ask for financial information 2. Check your email for any communication from FSA about your application status 3. Contact Federal Student Aid directly to report this issue 4. Do NOT submit the application as is if you can help it - your son would likely receive an incorrect SAI The system should have asked about your AGI, tax filing status, assets, and several other financial elements for a proper SAI calculation.

My nephew had this EXACT same problem last month. It's definitely a glitch in the system. He ended up getting an SAI of $0 even though his parents make well over $100k. They had to call repeatedly to get it fixed. Now they're going through some crazy verification process to correct it. Such a headache.

To follow up on the excellent advice above, once you get through to FSA, ask them specifically to check if your IRS data retrieval was actually completed. Sometimes the system thinks it imported your tax data but it actually failed silently. This could explain why it didn't prompt for additional questions - the system might believe it already has your financial information when it doesn't. Also, check your son's SAI calculation once it's available. If it shows as $0 or an unusually low number based on your financial situation, that's a clear indicator something went wrong.

I went through this same issue with my twins (applying for 2025-2026). Let me walk you through what happened and how we fixed it: 1. The FAFSA system didn't ask me ANY financial questions except about benefits 2. Both applications showed as "completed" immediately 3. We received our SAI calculations about 5 days later - both showed $0 (which was VERY wrong) 4. Called FSA and was told there's a known contributor invitation glitch 5. They placed both applications in "correction" status 6. I received new contributor invitations a week later 7. THIS time I got all the proper financial questions 8. New (correct) SAI calculations were issued about 10 days later The key is getting someone at FSA to acknowledge the glitch and manually trigger new contributor invitations. It's frustrating but fixable!

the whole new fafsa is a DISASTER!! my daughter lost out on thousands in aid because of these stupid glitches. by the time we got it fixed all the institutional scholarships were gone. NOBODY at fsa cares either. this is what happens when govt tries to "simplify" something that was working fine before!!!

One more thing to be aware of - if the correction process takes longer than expected, make sure your son's college financial aid offices are aware of the situation. They can often place a hold on his financial aid package until the corrected information comes through, rather than issuing an initial package based on incorrect data. Just have him email the financial aid offices explaining the FAFSA glitch and that corrected information is forthcoming.

I'm dealing with this exact same issue right now! Just went through the contributor process yesterday and it only asked about government benefits - nothing about income, assets, or taxes. So frustrating to see this is a widespread problem. Reading through everyone's experiences here, it sounds like calling FSA and getting them to acknowledge the glitch is the key step. Has anyone had luck with specific phone numbers or times of day that work better for getting through? I'm dreading spending hours on hold but it seems like that's what it's going to take to get this fixed.