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If the Department of Education verifies your assets and discovers that you lied, it will revoke your financial aid.
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In some cases, you will need to verify information you submitted on your FAFSA, like tax returns.
Don’t be scared if you find out that you need to verify information. It doesn’t mean you’ve done anything wrong.
If you made any errors on your FAFSA, fix them before you send in your documentation.
To find out what financial aid you can receive for college, fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, commonly known as the FAFSA. The FAFSA determines your eligibility for grants, work-study, and loans. To complete it, you’ll need to enter information about your family’s bank accounts, investments, and previous tax statements.
Answering the questions on the FAFSA dishonestly to try and get more money isn’t a good idea. If your information is verified by the Department of Education and it turns out you lied, you could face time in prison and/or a hefty fine, and you would have to repay any financial aid you recieved.
Whose FAFSAs are selected for verification?
A chunk of FAFSAs will be selected for verification; roughly one in four high school senior applicants were selected for verification during the 2019-20 aid cycle, according to the National College Attainment Network. Data shows that students who are eligible for Pell Grants are the most likely to be chosen, as well as lower-income students, though it isn’t clear why that’s the case.
Verification for some applications may be selected randomly, and others might be chosen to clarify any inconsistencies. Your school may also verify every FAFSA it receives.
Students flagged for verification will have to provide documents that prove your information is correct. This may include gross income, taxes paid, and household size. If you fail to complete the verification process, you won’t receive federal financial aid.
A good way to reduce the likelihood that your application is requested for this process is to use the IRS Data Retrieval tool when filling out your FAFSA. This tool directly transfers information from your tax returns to your FAFSA and is considered to be verified already.
What should you do if you need to verify your information?
Don’t be alarmed if the DOE reaches out to verify your information. This is a common part of the FAFSA process and does not mean that you did anything wrong.
You should respond to the verification notice as quickly as possible. Monitor your email address to see if you have to provide more information to verify your application. You may also get mail from the college you applied to, or it could show up on your Student Aid Report, which is a summary of your FAFSA information. Deadlines to submit this verification vary by institution, so check with your college about when it needs your answers and make sure to hit the deadline.
If you made any mistakes — which is okay, it happens — correct them before you submit your documentation. The easiest way to do so is through the FAFSA’s online portal, and you should let your school’s financial aid office know of any mistakes, as they might be able to advise you further.
Your aid package may change as a result of the verification process. If you find yourself suddenly needing more money to cover the cost of your education, consider applying for scholarships. Scholarships offer money that doesn’t need to be repaid. Loans are another option, but they’re less desirable because you’ll need to cover the balance plus interest.