FAFSA rejected Pell Grant eligibility due to disability income - how to correct 'married filing separately' issue?

This is exactly why the new FAFSA is such a mess! The 'simplified' form removed a bunch of options that the old form had. You're right that the new FAFSA doesn't have a clear way to indicate 'married filing separately' anymore. You need to submit a correction to your FAFSA. Log in to studentaid.gov, go to your application, and select 'Make FAFSA Corrections.' In the financial section, there should be a place to manually enter income information. You'll need to enter your husband's untaxed disability income in the 'Other Untaxed Income' section. Make sure to save and submit the correction. Then immediately file for a Professional Judgment review with your son's school's financial aid office. Explain the disability situation and provide documentation of your husband's disability benefits. They have the authority to make adjustments to your FAFSA that the online system won't allow.

im in literally the same boat!!! husband is on VA disability and didnt file taxes. fafsa system is SO BROKEN this year!! did u try calling them yet? i got hung up on 3 times before i gave up lol

I work in a college financial aid office and we're seeing this problem A LOT with the new FAFSA. Here's the correct process: 1. You need to complete a FAFSA correction and mark your husband as a non-tax filer 2. Enter his disability income in the untaxed income section 3. Submit the correction 4. Contact your son's school's financial aid office with documentation of the disability income The school will then need to perform verification before recalculating your SAI. Unfortunately, until the Department of Education fixes this issue, families with non-filers are getting caught in this trap. One important note: make sure you're using the income from the correct tax year (2022 for the 2024-2025 FAFSA). And be prepared that the verification process might take 2-3 weeks with most schools right now due to all the FAFSA implementation problems.

You might want to try Claimyr to actually get through to a Federal Student Aid agent. I was in a similar situation with my daughter's FAFSA (different issue but same frustration with not being able to talk to anyone). I used claimyr.com and they got me connected to an actual FSA agent in about 15 minutes who could manually override some things in our application. They have a video showing how it works here: https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ The agent I spoke with was able to add notes to our application explaining our tax situation and pushed it through to processing. Definitely worth it after I wasted days trying to get through on my own.

The stupdiest thing about this new FASFA is they claims its "simplifed" but its WAY more complicated!!!! Why would they remove important options like filing status??? Im so sorry your dealing with this nightmare!!!

I had a similar issue with my husband's disability income. What finally worked for us was: 1. Log into studentaid.gov 2. Select "Make FAFSA Corrections" 3. Navigate to the "Financial Information" section 4. You should see an option that says "Did [Spouse Name] file a tax return?" - select "No" 5. This will open up fields to manually enter income 6. Enter the disability income in the "Untaxed Income" section After that, I also uploaded a signed statement explaining our situation using the document upload feature. It's under "Submit Documentation" in your dashboard. Don't forget to contact your son's school directly too - they ultimately control the aid package and can make adjustments that FAFSA's system can't.

Once you've made the correction, here's what will likely happen: 1. Your application will probably be selected for verification (this is standard for situations like yours) 2. The school will request documentation of non-filing status and income verification 3. You'll need to provide your tax return, your husband's disability documentation, and possibly a Verification of Non-Filing Letter from the IRS for your husband 4. The school will then manually calculate your correct SAI 5. This should resolve the Pell Grant eligibility issue You should be prepared that this might take 3-4 weeks to fully resolve with the current backlog at most financial aid offices. If your son needs to make an enrollment decision before this is resolved, contact the school's financial aid office - many are offering deadline extensions due to the FAFSA delays this year.

My brother went thru this exact thing & ended up having to appeal directly to the college financial aid office. The FAFSA people weren't able to fix it in the system but the college could override it manually. He had to provide proof of disability & income but they fixed it pretty quick once he talked to the right person.

UPDATE: I finally got this resolved! For anyone dealing with similar issues: 1. I corrected the FAFSA by manually entering my spouse as a non-tax filer 2. I used Claimyr to reach an actual FSA agent who added notes to our application 3. I gathered documentation (benefit award letters, bank statements, IRS non-filing verification) 4. I contacted my son's school financial aid office with all documentation It took about 2 weeks, but they recalculated our SAI and my son IS eligible for a Pell Grant after all! The financial aid officer told me they're seeing this issue a lot with disability income and the new FAFSA. Thanks everyone for your help! This community saved us literally thousands in financial aid!