Will parent's Social Security benefits affect college student's FAFSA eligibility?

Social Security benefits ARE counted as income on the FAFSA. This includes retirement, survivors, and disability benefits. If you start collecting while your son is in college, you'll need to report that income on future FAFSA applications, which could potentially reduce his aid eligibility depending on your overall financial situation. The FAFSA uses something called the Expected Family Contribution formula that includes parental income, and SS benefits are part of that calculation.

went thru this last yr with my daughter. your SS benefits count as untaxed income on FAFSA which affects the EFC (expected family contribution). not the end of the world but could reduce grants some. depends on your other income too

I'm in almost the EXACT same situation!!! My son is a sophomore and I've been putting off applying for my SS disability because I was afraid it would mess up his financial aid. I called the financial aid office at his college and they confirmed that YES parent's Social Security DOES count as income for FAFSA purposes. But they also told me that if your income is low enough overall, it might not matter much. Have you considered just calling your son's financial aid office directly? They can probably give you specific advice for your situation.

I think everyone's missing an important detail here - FASFA doesn't just ask if you're "on SS" - it asks about your current income. If you haven't applied yet, there's nothing to report NOW. But yes, once you start receiving benefits, that would be reportable income on future FASFA applications. The real question is whether the additional income from SS would push you over any of the financial aid thresholds.

When I was dealing with this mess last year trying to help my nephew with college, I spent HOURS trying to get through to someone at the financial aid office who could actually explain how different income sources affect eligibility. Absolute nightmare. I ended up using Claimyr (claimyr.com) to get through to a Social Security representative who explained exactly how my benefits affected FAFSA. Saved me so much time! They have a video that shows how it works: https://youtu.be/Z-BRbJw3puU - basically they get you through to a real person at SSA without the usual wait times. The SSA rep was actually really knowledgeable about how benefits impact FAFSA.

One thing to keep in mind is that FAFSA rules have changed for the 2024-2025 academic year. The income protection allowance increased, which means more of your income (including Social Security) is protected before it counts against aid eligibility. Also, the new FAFSA form is supposed to be simpler. So information from previous years might not be totally accurate anymore.

also depends if ur the custodial parent for FAFSA. if ur ex has primary custody and u don't live together, then YOUR income (including SS) isn't even counted on FAFSA. only the custodial parent's income matters.

I just remembered something else!!! If your son is selected for FAFSA verification (which happens randomly to like 30% of applications), they might ask for documentation of Social Security benefits. So make sure whatever you report is accurate because they sometimes check! My son got selected for verification last year and it was such a PAIN getting all the documents together.