Can a Student Be Independent If the Support She Provides For Her Dependents Comes From Her Grandparents?

Scenario: The student has three children of her own and does not meet any of the other standards to be considered independent. We have a letter of support from the grandparents, with whom she lives, stating they provide all support for the student and her three children.

Answer: There are two issues involved in this situation. The first is determining the correct dependency status of the student. The second is the appropriate treatment on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) of the support provided by the grandparents. It is possible the student can still be independent depending on to whom the grandparents provide support.

When determining whether a student provides more than half of the support for their children when that student is, in turn, receiving support from someone besides the student's parent, the student may count it as part of her support to the child. Sources include support from others and government programs, such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly Food Stamps), that provide benefits for dependent children. So a student may be considered independent when the benefit she receives is the primary support for her child. For example, if a student who lives alone with her child receives cash from her boyfriend that amounts to more than 50% support for her child, then she would be able to count the child as a dependent and in her family size, and she would be independent.

This guidance would apply to the grandparents, so the format of how the grandparents provide the support becomes important. If the grandparents provide support to the student, who then uses that support to meet the expenses of the children, the student would count that as support the student provides to their dependents. However, if the grandparents are providing the support directly to the children of the student and not to the student, those resources would not count towards determining whether the student is providing more than 50% of the children's support.

If you determine the grandparents are providing this support to the student, and with that support, the student provides more than 50% of the support for at least one of the children, the student would be considered independent.

The next question is how the support of the grandparents should be treated on the FAFSA. It isn't. Any cash support or in-kind support the grandparents provide to the student is not reported on the FAFSA, is not included in need analysis, and is not treated as other financial assistance (OFA) when packaging the student with Title IV aid.

In addition, you may want to ask the student why she is living with her grandparents (e.g., is she an orphan, are there reasons she does not live with her parent(s) that could warrant a dependency override, etc.).

See the Application and Verification Guide (AVG), Chapter 2 of the FSA Handbook.

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