| DCLPublicationDate: 9/1/98 DCLID: P-98-3 AwardYear: Summary: Procedures for 1997-98 Federal Pell Grant account adjustments after the September 30, 1998 submission deadline. P-98-3 September 1998 SUMMARY: Procedures for 1997-98 Federal Pell Grant account adjustments after the September 30, 1998 submission deadline. References: 1998 U.S. Department of Educations Grant Administration and Payment System (GAPS) Users Guide. Chapter 4 of the 1997-98 Federal Student Financial Aid Handbook. Dear Colleague Letter P-97-2 dated June 1997. Compilation of Student Financial Aid Regulations, 12/31/97, 34 CFR- Part 690- Federal Pell Grant Program. Federal Register, dated June 9, 1997, Notice of Deadline Dates for Receipt of Applications, Reports and other Documents for the 1997-98 Award Year and Federal Register Correction Notice, dated August 25, 1997. Dear Colleague: In this letter, you will find instructions for: 1. Reconciling your institution's actual 1997-98 Federal Pell Grant student payments with the payments accepted by the program, and 2. Using three methods to report post-deadline award adjustments. RECONCILING YOUR 1997-98 FEDERAL PELL GRANT PAYMENTS WITH PAYMENTS ACCEPTED BY THE PROGRAM Your final 1997-98 Pell Grant authorization cannot exceed the total student payments accepted by the program from your submissions through September 30, 1998. You should reconcile your institutional records with the processed payment data for each of your submissions during the school year. This ongoing reconciliation process will help you avoid, or greatly minimize, post-deadline adjustments. If you have submitted additional payment data since the date of your most recent Student Payment Summary (SPS), you may request an update by calling the Pell Grant Institutional Access System (IAS) at 1-800-4PGRANT (1-800-474-7268). You should use each SPS to confirm that we received and accepted all of your Federal Pell Grant payments, or to correct your institutional records for payments we could not accept. Please visit our website at www.ifap.ed.gov or refer to pp. 4-101 to 4-112 in the 1997-98 Federal Student Financial Aid Handbook for detailed instructions on using the SPS. Page 2 - 1997-98 Post-deadline procedures To reconcile your institution's 1997-98 Federal Pell Grant Program records, look for the following conditions: 1. A recipient's payment data appears on your institution's records but does not appear on the SPS (NEW RECIPIENT); 2. A recipient's payment data appears on your institution's records for an award amount GREATER THAN the amount shown on the SPS (INCREASE AWARD ADJUSTMENT); and 3. A recipient's payment data appears on your institution's records for an award amount LESS THAN the amount shown on the SPS (DECREASE AWARD ADJUSTMENT). If you complete your reconciliation process as of September 30, 1998 and find that you need to increase funding for previously reported students or for new students, you may meet the criteria for requesting Administrative Relief and/or Audit adjustments that are identified later in this letter. Section B, Deadline Dates for Reporting Federal Pell Grant Student Payment Data, of the June 9 and August 25, 1997 Federal Register notice also provides additional information on post-deadline adjustments. REPORTING DECREASE AWARD AMOUNTS If a student's Total Payment Amount (sum of Amount paid to date and Remaining amount to be paid) shown on your latest SPS, or in your processed student records from a submission after the last SPS, exceeds the actual amount you paid that student, OR if the student received an overpayment, you must report the decrease award amount. You may NOT use decrease award amounts to pay other students. For further information concerning overawards and overpayments, please refer to pp. 4-69 through 4-73 of the 1997-98 Federal Student Financial Aid Handbook. You should continue to submit the decrease award amount through your usual submission media (electronic, tape, or diskette). We will return the processed data through the media in which it was sent. If you can no longer submit through your usual media, you may submit the data in the format shown by the sample Decrease Award Report in Enclosure 1. For your convenience, we provided a facsimile you may use to report award decreases in Enclosure 2. The institutional administrator officially responsible for the accuracy and completeness of the Decrease Award Report must provide a hand-written, original signature. If we receive your Decrease Award Report without an original signature, we will return it unprocessed. Print or type the name and title of the person whose signature appears on the Decrease Award Report. For Date Signed, print or type the date that the responsible official signed the Decrease Award Page 3 - 1997-98 Post-deadline procedures Report. For numbers only, for example, enter November 10, 1998 as 11/10/98. Please send your Decrease Award Reports to the address provided below. We will also adjust your Federal Pell Grant authorization to reflect the decrease award amount and we will send you an updated 1997-98 Statement of Account (SOA). REGULAR MAIL U.S. Department of Education Student Aid Origination Team, PSS P.O. Box 6565 Rockville, MD 20850-6565 COURIER SERVICE U.S. Department of Education Student Aid Origination Team, PSS C/O Computer Data Systems, Inc. RFMS, Federal Pell Grant Program Mail Stop 3250, One Curie Court Rockville, MD 20850-4389 REQUESTING ADMINISTRATIVE RELIEF If you find any increase award adjustments or new recipient records, you may request administrative relief if: (a) the U.S. Department of Education or one of its contractors made an administrative or processing error which prevented you from meeting the September 30, 1998 deadline; or (b) an event, such as a natural disaster, prevented you from meeting the deadline. To request Administrative Relief, send a written statement describing the problem in detail. We must RECEIVE your request for administrative relief no later than FEBRUARY 1, 1999 at the address below: ATTN: Administrative Relief U.S. Department of Education Institutional Financial Management Division, AFMS P.O. Box 23781 Washington, D.C. 20026-0781 If we approve your request for Administrative Relief, we will notify you by letter. You may then submit the approved student data through your usual submission media (electronic, tape/cartridge, or disk) to the Rockville address. You must include a copy of our letter approving your request with your tape/cartridge or disk. ADJUSTING AUTHORIZATIONS THROUGH AUDIT REPORTS If you find any increase award adjustments and/or new recipient records and do not qualify for administrative relief, your institution may seek funding for such award adjustments when they are brought to the attention of the U.S. Department of Education in accordance with either 34 CFR 690.83 © or (e) of the Federal Pell Grant program regulations. Page 4 - 1997-98 Post-deadline procedures For additional information and instructions concerning the audit process, please refer to the June 1997 Dear Colleague Letter P-97-2. Do not submit Audit Reports to the Institutional Financial Management Division, AFMS. RECONCILING WITH YOUR BUSINESS OFFICE As a final reminder, please check with your business office to ensure that your records reconcile. If the Business Office finds a discrepancy that they cannot reconcile, they may need to call the Grant Administration and Payment System (GAPS) hotline at 1-888-336-8930. If you have any questions concerning these instructions, please contact the Federal Pell Grant customer service at 1-800-4PGRANT (1-800-474-7268) or send e-mail to #pell_systems@ed.gov. Sincerely, Michele L. Selvage, Director Institutional Financial Management Division Accounting and Financial Management Service Attachment A Attachment B |