the new FAFSA form was supposed to make it easier for students and parents to apply for federal financial aid but families have run into a ton of problems with the new form including technical issues incorrect Aid estimates and hours long Waits on the phone just to speak to a human so today the Department of Education is responding to what it says are new fixes to speed up College financial aid Awards and help colleges process the information in an easier way so some of the steps include signifi
cantly reducing the verification requirements now what this means is that the agency is going to select fewer FAFSA applicants to go through what usually is a very lengthy verification process to avoid identity fraud now that the department receives the majority of income data directly from the IRS there's going to be less of a need to verify a student's information they're going to suspend new routine program reviews through June of 2024 now these reviewss are usually conducted to confirm a col
lege meets the Department's requirements for eligibility to receive federal funds the temporary suspension allows colleges more time now to focus on putting together financial aid packages for students they're also going to be deploying Federal Personnel the Department's office of federal student aid is deploying teams of federal experts to under resource schools that need additional help and the agency is also allocating $50 million doar in federal funding to nonprofit groups specializing in fi
nancial aid support and services now the one thing that these steps do not address is the hourong wait times just to speak to someone in the meantime there are a number of FAFSA experts you can turn to these are nonprofit groups throughout our area that can really help answer your questions we have a whole list of them right now on our website oftentimes you can also find them through your children's school counselors
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