By Jill Desjean, NASFAA Policy & Federal Relations Staff

In written comments to the Department of Education (ED) this week on the draft 2017-18 paper Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), NASFAA expressed support for the administration’s decision to implement the use of prior-prior year (PPY) income data for the 2017-18 award year, as well as the addition of Medicaid as a qualifying means-tested benefit for the simplified and automatic-zero EFC formulas.

NASFAA President Justin Draeger urged ED to pursue further FAFSA simplification efforts by working with Congress to enhance the use of the Internal Revenue Service’s Data Retrieval Tool by adopting NASFAA’s 2015 FAFSA Working Group’s FAFSA simplification recommendations.

Draeger also stressed the need for earlier release of Pell Grant payment and disbursement schedules, in order to give students the maximum benefit of early FAFSA ––  earlier, accurate financial aid decisions.

Publication Date: 5/31/2016

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