The Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) increased both annual and aggregate loan limits in the Federal Perkins Loan Program, effective August 14, 2008. Volume 3 of the 2009-10 FSA Handbook, which was posted to the IFAP web site earlier this month, does not accurately reflect the new loan limits.

On page 3-131, the loan limits referenced in the shaded box are the outdated, pre-HEOA loan limits.

On page 3-134, the aggregate loan limit for students who have completed two years is incorrectly shown as 27,000 instead of 27,500.

The correct Perkins Loan annual and aggregate loan limits can be found in GEN-08-12, and are listed below:

GRADE LEVEL	ANNUAL LOAN LIMIT	AGGREGATE LOAN LIMIT
ONE AND TWO	$5,500	$11,000
THREE AND ABOVE	$5,500	$27,500
GRADUATE	$8,000	$60,000

The Department of Education (ED) has indicated that the correction has been made to the print order of the Handbook. They will also issue an errata that will be posted to IFAP.

By Karen McCarthy
NASFAA Assistant Director for Professional Assessment, Training, and Regulatory Assistance

Posted 10/21/09 to www.NASFAA.org. Redistribution to non-NASFAA institutions is prohibited. Please submit Web site questions or comments to Web@NASFAA.org.