USA Funds Update
Submitted by: Ryan Chase,
USA Funds Services, (480) 814-1872,
rchase@usafunds.org
USA Funds University Provides Tips For Avoiding Verification Pitfalls
To help financial-aid administrators avoid some of the most common problems
in verifying students’ financial-aid-application information, USA
Funds® offers the following advice from USA Funds University:
-
Resolve discrepancies or conflicting information in the
student’s
file.
-
Ensure that your financial-aid office has complete verification procedures
documented in its policy-and-procedures manual.
-
Include complete documentation of verification in the student’s
file.
-
When a student’s parents are married and report dual income information
on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), but
the parents file separate tax returns, request returns from both parents.
-
Keep a close eye on the names on tax returns that you review. For example,
if the information on a student’s FAFSA is for one parent
and stepparent, make sure that the tax return you collect for
verification is the return
for the same parent and stepparent.
-
If an independent student was married when filing the FAFSA, review
the tax return for the spouse’s income information. The spouse’s
tax return must be obtained if the independent student was
married when the FAFSA
was filed, but not married during the tax year in question.
-
Accept a tax return only if it is signed or officially stamped.
If the filer has not signed the tax return, you may accept a
paper return
that
is signed
or officially stamped by the preparer.
USA Funds University works in support of the USA Funds education-loan
guarantee to present seminars, training sessions and conferences
throughout the country
to help Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) participants
improve the financial-aid process. USA Funds is the designated
guarantor of federal
education loans for Arizona. For more information about USA
Funds University training opportunities, visit www.usafunds.org/training/index.html on the USA Funds Web site.
USA Funds Sponsors Sixth Annual National Scholarship Month
For the second consecutive year, USA Funds teamed with corporations and organizations
to support National Scholarship Month in May. USA Funds served as the national
supporting sponsor of the month’s activities, which celebrated current
levels of scholarship support and encouraged broader participation from
the private sector.
As part of the National Scholarship Month kickoff, Carl Dalstrom, USA Funds
president and CEO, moderated a May 2 panel discussion at the National Press
Club in Washington, D.C. The panel discussed “Mobilizing Corporate
Support for Students Through Scholarships.” The dialogue focused on
efforts of USA Funds and other private-sector organizations to stem the shortage
of educated workers that has been predicted to occur in the United States.
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