Verification & conflicting info

Just the basics Cps selects 1/3 of all students for verification Per their regulations we are only required to verify those students who qualify for or have received subsidized financial assistance But it is our office policy to verify all students selected Verification must be completed before any professional judgments can be accessed, but only if student is already selected Students can be selected for verification at any time, even after their aid has paid out STUDENTS ARE NOTIFIED ON THEIR STUDENT AID REPORT IF THEY ARE SELECTED FOR VERIFICATION AND WHICH VERIFICATION TRACKING GROUP THEY ARE ASSIGNED TO Just the basics

APPLICATIONS AND INFORMATION TO BE VERIFIED V1-STANDARD VERIFICATION GROUP Adjusted gross income U.S. income tax paid Untaxed portion of IRA distribution Untaxed portions of pensions IRA deductions and payments Tax exempt interest income Education credits Household size Number in college income earned from work (if not a tax filer) V4-CUSTOM VERIFICATION GROUP Students must verify high school completion status and identity/statement of educational purpose V5-AGGREGATE VERIFICATION GROUP Students must verify high school completion status and identity/statement of educational purpose in addition to the standard verification group

Stuff I am glad to be rid of As of 2017-2018 we no longer have to verify snap benefits or child support paid. V3 and V6 are no longer tracking groups

But because we are still processing 1617… V6- HOUSEHOLD RESOURCES GROUP Students must verify all items in the standard verification group as well as certain other untaxed income on the FAFSA: Payments to tax deferred pensions and retirement savings plan Child support received Housing, food, and other living allowances paid to members of the military, clergy, and others VA non educational benefits Other untaxed income Money received or paid on behalf of the applicant Resources or benefits not appearing on the FAFSA

But thanks to prior prior year, which is totally cool and great… CONFLICTING INFORMATION HAS RESULTED IN MANY OF THE V6 ITEMS NEEDING TO BE VERIFIED FOR APPLICANTS EVEN THOSE NOT SELECTED FOR VERIFICATION. More on that later

Here is the check sheet I use for verification You can see all the items needing to be verified, I can enter in information as needed

You can see some of these items have their corresponding 1040 line number These items get transferred when the Data Retrieval Tool is used

Do we have to verify them? Verification Exclusions What if they insist they were verified at another school? Death of the student Not an aid recipient Post enrollment, the student was selected after ceasing to be enrolled at our school Their FAFSA data must be the same as it was at the previous school, and they must get a letter from that school stating that it verified their application and provide the transaction number of the pertinent valid ISIR

What about parental and spouse info? Not if: Both parents or spouse are mentally incapacitated Both parents or custodial parent or spouse has died They are residing in another country and cannot be contacted by normal means They cannot be located because the student does not have and cannot get their contact information

Basically, it is not likely that we would not verify a student once they are selected No amount of whining will stop my verification hammer from comin’ down

So how do we get this process done with as little tears as possible We Promote the data retrieval tool!

The DRT transfers most information I need to verify and the student then only needs to turn in a worksheet. But why doesn’t everyone use it then? They indicated on FAFSA that they haven’t yet filed Their marriage date is later than January 1, 20XX The first three digits of their SSN is 666 They indicated on the FAFSA that their tax return was amended They filed a non US return They are married but filed HOH or Single or MFS Neither married parent entered a valid SSN A non married parent or both married parents entered all zeroes for their SSN Special Tax Situations Filing extensions (no longer applicable with prior prior year) IRA or Retirement Rollovers The DRT was used but they altered the data transferred to remove a rollover amount as instructed by the FAFSA This makes the DRT no longer eligible for verification and they would have to submit the TRT and indicate on the TRT the amount that is rolled over and sign. Filers of joint returns who are no longer married Must provide TRT as well as W2 for the parent or student who is on the FAFSA Non tax filers Must obtain letter of non filing as well as W2s if income was earned Filers of non IRS tax returns This one is tricky and I deal with it on a case by case basis Amended returns Requires the original TRT as well as their 1040X or the Account transcript with code 460 Victims of identity theft Requires a DATABASE VIEW TRANSCRIPT as well as other documentation which is all listed in OneNote

But what if they can’t get their tax return transcript and they swear they have tried 17 times and they called and went online and nothing works and this is just ridiculous TOO BAD! Just kidding, in some special instances if they can obtain documentation from the irs that they do not have a return for them we can accept that along with their 1040, 1040A or 1040EZ

Wow, Alli, this is a lot, how do you manage it? I’m glad you asked, here is my process…

A day in the life Students are selected by CPS and notified on their SAR When their ISIR comes in they are put in the appropriate tracking group in BANNER When Christina runs tracking they get an email letting them know of unmet requirements They see what needs to be submitted and they attempt to do so correctly I find all sorts of mistakes and send one of my many prefabricated emails to let the student know what to do next Once I receive a worksheet from a student I review their application and compare it to the information provided on the worksheet When God loves me everything matches with the household, # in college, and everyone used the DRT Sometimes I make corrections to the household size or # in college according to the worksheet Often I send emails requesting tax return transcripts or letters of non filing or W2s, these are the most common

The day isn’t done yet When I have a TRT I compare that data to what is on the application and make corrections as needed I note all corrections on the checklist, as well as the transaction number, and date that corrections were sent I send corrections daily and they come back two days later If everything goes well and I do not need to make any changes I lock their application, change tracking to S, and make a comment regarding EFC If I made corrections I will leave it unlocked, change INPROC tracking to P, and make a comment that I have sent corrections and what the EFC is If I am still waiting on documents I will leave tracking in N status and I always send an email to the student requesting what we still need and I will put that email in comments Once verification is complete, all documents are sent to scanning

Gee, Alli, that actually sounds really easy WELL THINGS DON’T ALWAYS GO SO SMOOTHLY, BECKY!!

Lots of weird circumstances come to light in verification Student is single on FAFSA but a spouse is listed in household on worksheet Same with parental marital status mismatches Student or parent is married but filing head of household Student or parent recently married but for last year they weren’t so they didn’t have to file married Very little income is reported for a large family size, or no income is reported Student indicates on FAFSA they have a child or legal dependent and sometimes they really don’t, or their parent is supporting them and their child Child support paid is counted for children listed in the household Boyfriends and girlfriends are being considered part of the household

What to do in these instances? Verification is an investigative process and I can only proceed when I receive certain documents Much of this information can be found on the ISIR under the information release tab or status tab It is best practice to bring these inconsistencies to my attention rather than trying to answer the question without having all the possible information I reach out to students on an individual basis to resolve such conflicts. Sometimes this results in taxes needing to be amended, FAFSAs needing to be corrected, budget reports, and signed statements

Timeline for verification completion We tell students 2 weeks usually or 3 weeks during peak processing But because I am a rock star, at least I like to pretend I am, I usually get verification completed within a few days of receiving all necessary documents 1718 has been delayed because 1617 takes priority so it is not currently on that same timeline

So verification, it’s nuts, yo But wait there’s more… conflicting information!!!

Conflicting information 1617 and 1718 are both using 2015 income information In most instances this means the FAFSAs must match Often times they don’t, common errors I have found are regarding AGI, taxes paid, wages, ed credits, grant and scholarship aid, tax deferred pension, other untaxed income, and child support received Things that don’t have to match include household size, # in college, amounts in savings, checking, or cash, and asset questions These items are to be reported as what they are at the time the application is received so they can be different from year to year

Conflicting info process I run a report weekly to find students flagged with this code The tracking is only added to 1718, I manually add it to 1617 to stop any further disbursements I review the applications and find the conflicting info If the student or parent used the DRT on one application and the conflict is with transferred data I can use that to correct the other application and no further action is needed. This can result in a change in their aid and I notify students when this happens If the student was selected for verification and these documents resolve the conflict no further action is needed If a PJ was performed for 1617 and the conflict has to do with what we changed I will waive the tracking requirement Otherwise I create the conflicting info worksheet and send it to the student along with requests for any other documentation needed All worksheets are saved at S:\Admin Specialist - Verification\Conflt students worksheets

Other documentation may include: 1098-T for grant and scholarship aid, if this is the only conflict I will not request a worksheet as the student doesn’t often know how to correctly report this information W2s for wages A tax return transcript for AGI, taxes paid, education credits and other information that would have been transferred using the DRT If the student goes back into their application and used the DRT then the worksheet may not be needed

Once the conflict is resolved I will make corrections as needed and use the same N, P, and S codes as with verification If needed I will recalculate PELL and authorize disbursement I will always note what I changed and the EFC if there was a change Documents are sent to scanning along with verification documents

Conflicting information is another investigative and individual process It is best to refer students to me to answer their questions regarding conflicting information, they are not getting notice for it other than directly from me

Well, I am sure I missed something Questions?