The FAFSA form error that would have limited students' financial aid is getting fixed
The Education Department plans to fix an error in how financial aid will be calculated for students starting their post-secondary educations next year.
The Education Department plans to fix an error in how financial aid will be calculated for students starting their post-secondary educations next year.
However, financial aid experts say implementing the fix to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, now could lead to delays in the students' receiving financial aid offers.
The error involved a failure to adjust financial aid tables for inflation. Specifically, the tables show how much of a student's family's income should be "protected" from being considered as available to pay for college expenses. Without the inflation adjustment, a family's spending power would have been considered higher than it actually was.
NPR was the first to report Tuesday that the fix will now occur for incoming 2024-25 students, but it reported that the exact timing was still not certain. An Education Department spokesperson declined to comment to NBC News.
It is not exactly clear when Education Department officials first became aware of the problem, which began to receive media attention late last year. The problem emerged after a congressional mandate in 2020 to simplify the FAFSA form.
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