Subpart E Verification: Individuals

ICRAS 1416 1845-0041 v8 Affected Public - Individuals 8/29/2013

This request is for an extension of the information collection supporting the policies and reporting requirements contained in Subpart E of Part 668 – Verification and Updating of Student Aid Application Information. Sections 668.53, 668.54, 668.55, 668.56, 668.57, 668.59 and 668.61 contain information collection requirements (OMB control number 1845-0041). This subpart governs the verification and updating of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) used to calculate an applicant’s Expected Family Contribution (EFC) for purposes of determining an applicant’s need for student financial assistance under Title IV of Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended (HEA). The collection of this documentation helps ensure that students (and parents in the case of PLUS loans) receive the correct amount of Title IV program assistance by providing accurate information to calculate an applicant’s expected family contribution. There has been no change to the regulatory language since the prior information collection filing.

Section 668.55 – Updating information.

The regulations require that all applicants update all dependency status changes throughout the award year, update changes in household size, the number in the household attending postsecondary educational institutions throughout the award year, and under certain situations a financial aid administrator can include changes in an applicant’s marital status.

We estimate that approximately ten percent of the approximate 21 million FAFSA applicants will be required to update information listed above.

# of Respondents # of Responses Hrs/Response # of Burden Hours

** 2,100,000 X 0.08 168,000

Note - The double asterisk denotes this group as a subsection of the individuals identified in section 668.57 and is used to avoid double counting the same respondent.

Section 668.57 – Acceptable documentation.

The regulations clarify acceptable documentation for the specified areas for verification. The regulations also allow the institutions to accept income information provided on the FAFSA if it has been obtained directly from the Internal Revenue Service during the initial application process through the IRS Data Retrieval process when the retrieved data has not been changed by the applicant.

The Department selected about 30 percent of the approximate 21 million FAFSA filers in the 2012-2013 award year. We anticipate it will take the applicant an average of seven minutes to review the verification request and locate the requested documents to provide to the institution.

# of Respondents # of Responses Hrs/Response # of Burden Hours

6,300,000 6,300,000 X 0.12 756,000

TOTALS

Responses 8,400,000

Respondents 6,300,000

Burden Hours 924,000