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UNC officials concerned about FAFSA Verification

Having trouble with the "verification" side of the FAFSA? Students hoping to attend UNC can head to four different workshops to help ease the hassle.
Credit: Mike Grady
The FAFSA is Free Application for Federal Student Aid.

GREELEY — At the University of Northern Colorado, Shyla Mars has been fielding calls in the financial aid office she rarely took before.

"I would say 98 percent of my calls have to do with verification of some sort," said Mars, a financial aid peer counselor.

Verification is a requirement imposed by the U.S. Department of Education on students filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid or FAFSA.

"It's kinda like an audit, but for the FAFSA," said Marty Somero, the University of Northern Colorado Financial Aid Director.

Somero said verifications are usually done randomly to make sure that people who apply for federal financial aid are actually eligible to receive it.

"But, this year, it was an absurd number of students who were being put through the process [needlessly]," Somero said.

He said the number of verifications for UNC students went up by nearly 1,000 or around 41 percent compared to last year. He said it's also mostly low-income students - raising concerns.

"From the idea that these extra steps, these extra burdens that the students face in an already complex process may make them want to give up and not try to go to school at all," Somero said.

Hailey Weiman is a senior who had her FAFSA selected for verification this year.

"I think it can definitely be discouraging especially since it can be such a frustrating process," Weiman said.

The U.S. Department of Education cited some major changes leading to initial increases in verifications. For the first time, students can start filling the FAFSA out on October 1 instead of January 1. That three-month head start created an early rush of early applicants.

For the first time, the U.S. Department of Education is requiring tax information from two years prior. And a Department of Education spokesperson said data from the IRS was not readily available at the beginning.

But the spokesperson said the Department is "ratcheting down" on verifications for the rest of the financial aid enrollment window and should see the verification rate lower to around 30 percent which is consistent with prior years.

In order to help educate the public, the University of Northern Colorado is holding four workshops to help families with the FAFSA and verification. The workshops will be June 4 and 5 from Littleton to Colorado Springs. To find out more information, click here: go.unco.edu/verify.

"People don't like financial aid to be completely honest," Mars said. "They just think it's very much a hassle and with the influx of verification, it has not helped."

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