In addition to today’s announcement on the Department’s plan to resolve the tax discrepancies issues, a resolution has been announced that addresses the access issues faced by students who have required contributors without a social security number.
The Department has implemented a solution to resolve an error received by some applicants when they invited a contributor without an SSN to participate in the online FAFSA form. As detailed in a March 12, 2024 Electronic Announcement, this error occurred due to a mismatch of personally identifiable information (PII) that is entered on the invitation compared to the PII attached to the contributor’s StudentAid.gov account or when the person sending the invitation to participate in the FAFSA form sends multiple invitations, often with different variations of PII.
The Department has implemented a daily process that will archive duplicate contributor StudentAid.gov accounts. With this update, all applicants who previously experienced challenges inviting their non-SSN contributor to their form may now do so. It is important to note that applicants can still encounter the issue if they again enter inaccurate information on a contributor’s invitation or send multiple invitations to the same contributor, resulting in duplicate accounts. If an applicant encounters this issue, they will see messaging on the invitation page that notes “An Error Has Occurred”. Applicants will then need to wait until the next day, after the nightly data cleanup process is completed, to add their contributor again.
The Department has updated messaging on StudentAid.gov to notify students and families that the issue has been resolved, and provided refreshed guidance for students who have a contributor without an SSN. These applicants should follow the updated instructions for submitting a FAFSA form to ensure they do not receive additional error messages. The Department also reminds applicants and their families of some best practices for ensuring they do not encounter other issues and may successfully complete the 2024-25 FAFSA form.