Who Is the Parent Of Record When One Parent Pays Alimony Or Spousal Support To Another Parent?

Scenario: The student's mother is paying spousal support or alimony to the student's father. The father receiving the support uses the full amount of that support to pay the rent or mortgage on his home, in which the student also lives.

Answer: According to guidance NASFAA received from the U.S. Department of Education (ED), the parent providing the alimony or spousal support (the mother in the above scenario) counts that towards their own support for the student--not the parent receiving the support.

Section 475(f) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA), as amended [20 USC 1087OO Amendment of Section] states, "Parental income and assets for a student whose parents are divorced or separated, but not remarried, is determined by including only the income and assets of the parent who provides the greater portion of the student's financial support." According to ED, "when a family is trying to determine who the parent of record is, and there are alimony or spousal support payments, the payments would, in part or in whole, be factored in as support coming from the parent providing the alimony. That of course does not mean that the parent providing alimony is automatically considered the parent of record. The family can determine how much alimony along with other resources provided by the parent should be considered when trying to determine how much financial support is being provided to the student. With that said, especially if the support is fairly equal between parents, the student and/or school can make a reasonable judgment call based upon all the factors to decide who the parent of record should be.

Our decision was arrived at in part based upon the IRS rules around alimony/parental support payments, how alimony is or is not factored into the financial information on the FAFSA, and Congress’ intent around parent of record switching from who the student lived with the longest to who provided the most financial support."

NASFAA cannot comment further on this, so the family will need to make the determination using this best available guidance above. The parents will need to determine how much of the spousal support/alimony that is paid to the spouse actually goes towards the student's housing. Then, they will need to determine if that portion of support for the student's housing plus any other support provided to the student amounts to the greater portion of the student's support. That's almost impossible to track or quantify for purposes of the greater support determination, but it remains that the parent providing the spousal support/alimony gets credit for it (not necessarily the parent with whom the student lives).

Spousal support and alimony are for the parent (not the student or children), so you cannot just assume the parent is using those funds to support the child. Even then, if any of those funds are used to support the child, the parent providing the support gets credit for that support when determining the parent of record. This is similar to child support under AskRegs Knowledgebase Q&A, Who Is the Parent Of Record When One Parent Pays Child Support To Another Parent?

The school is not required to verify who provides the most support, but if it does, it will need an explanation from the student, parents, third party, etc. of whether any portion of the spousal support/alimony was used to support the child.