Education Department’s mistake could further delay financial aid to students

Prospective and current students awaiting notification of scholarship awards are experiencing further delays. On Friday, the Department of Education announced an error in the calculation of federal student aid funds, resulting in delays for up to 200,000 applicants.

Financial aid procedures for students are already about three months behind schedule. There were initial delays due to slow rollout of the newly simplified Free Application for Federal Student Aid released this year. Further delays occurred because the ministry’s calculations did not take inflation into account.

Students receiving financial aid must fill out a form each year. Colleges use financial data from the FAFSA to determine how much scholarships and grants to award students. They crunch numbers for students every year, so it’s not just prospective students who are waiting.

However, some students wait longer than others. Recent errors are impacting dependent students who have assets. The agency said the application will be reprocessed and returned to the university at a later date.

This latest error comes about two weeks after the university finally started receiving financial data from the Department of Education. Although the number of her FAFSA applications received by many schools was very low, the office was able to begin examining the data. In its announcement, the department asked financial aid offices to continue processing all other applications so schools can get aid packages to students as soon as possible.

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