A Pell Grant overpayment occurs when a student stops attending class before a certain percentage of the semester is completed. If you did not attend school up until this point, you must pay back any grant money paid to the school. The repayment deadline is available when filling out your paperwork for school and through correspondence about the grant. Unfortunately, there are absolutely no exceptions to this repayment if dropping out before the deadline, even in extreme situations.
Instructions
1. Contact the U.S. Department of Education as soon as you receive a repayment notification. The letter will arrive soon after you have dropped out of school. The contact information will be available directly on the letter itself. Once contacted, let it know how much you can repay now or set up a payment plan if needed. The U.S. Department of Education will receive the repayment directly and not the financial aid offices of the school.
2. Decide whether you would like to allocate your next tax refund towards the repayment of the grant. Help with setting up this repayment plan is through the U.S. Department of Education. If the refund is larger than what you owe, then you will get the remainder back. You also may have an additional payment plan if your refund will not be enough to cover the full amount of the grant. Follow your payment schedule accordingly or set up your refund to pay the grant as soon as possible. Owing Pell Grant money makes you ineligible for additional aid until you repay the grant. You will have to pay for school out-of-pocket until you reimburse the federal aid.
3. Contact the grant office or school immediately and let it know your situation, if you will be late on payments. Schedule a payment as soon as you can. Maintain constant contact with the payment office, so you do not become sidetracked or miss payments entirely. Request a "Paid in Full" and a "Reinstatement of Title IV Eligibility" letter 14 days after mailing your last payment. It also will take an additional 14 business days to receive these letters. Return these papers to your school's financial aid offices to show you have repaid the overpayment.
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