DCLPublicationDate: 9/1/2000
DCLID: P-00-2
AwardYear:
Summary: This letter provides you with information concerning the procedures for 1999-2000 Federal Pell Grant award adjustments after the October 2, 2000 submission deadline.
September 2000
P-00-2 (Sept)
SUMMARY: This letter provides you with information concerning the procedures for 1999-2000 Federal Pell Grant award adjustments after the October 2, 2000 submission deadline.
RESOURCES: The following references can be found on the Departments Information for Financial Aid Professionals (IFAP) web site located at http://ifap.ed.gov:
Under Current SFA Publications:
Pell Grant (RFMS) Process
Electronic Announcement3/17/2000 concerning the year-to-date (YTD) file
Student Financial Aid Handbook, Chapter 4.
Regulations Compilation as of 12/31/1999, 34 CFR- Part 690- Federal Pell Grant Program
Federal Registerdated July 30, 1999,Volume 64, Number 146, Page 41703-41708, Notice of Deadline Dates for Receipt of Applications, Reports and other Documents for the 1999-2000 Award Year.
Under Additional SFA-Related Websites:
U.S. Department of Educations Grants Administration and Payment System (GAPS)
............................................................................................................................................................................
Dear Partner: In this letter, you will find instructions for:
I. Reconciling your institutions actual 1999-2000 Federal Pell Grant disbursements with
the total disbursements accepted by the Recipient Financial Management System
(RFMS).
II. Adjusting authorizations by reporting negative disbursements.
III. Adjusting authorizations by requesting administrative relief after October 2.
IV. Adjusting authorizations through audit reports.
V. Using a new reporting opportunity on the Web.
Note: Within this letter, use of the word disbursements refers to regular disbursement records as well as special disbursement records.
I. RECONCILING YOUR 1999-2000 FEDERAL PELL GRANT DISBURSEMENTS WITH TOTAL DISBURSEMENTS ACCEPTED BY RFMS
Your final 1999-2000 Pell Grant authorization cannot exceed the total student disbursements accepted by the program from your submissions through October 2, 2000. You should reconcile your institutional records with the acknowledgements sent to you, from RFMS, for each of your submissions during the school year. This ongoing reconciliation process will help you avoid, or greatly minimize, post-deadline adjustments.
To reconcile your institutions 1999-2000 Federal Pell Grant Program records use the Year-to-Date (YTD) file from RFMS and look for the following conditions:
1. A recipients disbursement data appears on your institutions records for an award
amount LESS THAN the amount shown on the YTD (NEGATIVE DISBURSEMENT);
2. A recipients disbursement data appears on your institutions records for an award amount
GREATER THAN the amount shown on the YTD (POSITIVE DISBURSEMENT);
3. A recipients disbursement data appears on your institutions records but does not appear on
the YTD (NEW RECIPIENT).
In addition to using the YTD file available in RFMS in reconciling your institutions records, you may want to request a 1999-2000 Pell Reconciliation Tool. To do this, send an email to pell_systems@ed.gov. For information about this tool, see the Electronic Announcement posted at www.ifap.ed.gov on 7/27/00 titled Reconciliation for the Federal Pell Grant Program and on 8/15/00 titled 99/00 Reconciliation Tool Update. The Reconciliation file is not available in RFMS but rather is generated upon individual institutional request and sent to the corresponding TIV WAN mailbox.
Note: There is no cut-off date for either the YTD file or the Reconciliation tool. You may want to request either of these for post-deadline processing as noted below.
If you complete your reconciliation process as of October 2, 2000 and find that you need to decrease funding for previously reported students, submit a negative disbursement transaction to RFMS for each applicable student.
If you find that you need to increase funding for previously reported students or for new students, you have two options, unless the increase is a result of now being able to submit a previously blocked record:
1. requesting Administrative Relief or
2. requesting an Audit Adjustment.
New Edit Code 399
If an origination record is received for an increased annual award and no Administrative Relief has been granted, the new edit code 399 will be returned. The text of edit code 399 is "Origination award increase received after end of processing year and institution has not been granted Administrative Relief."
Unblocked Awards Do Not Require Administrative Relief
If you have been informed through an MRR that a record has been unblocked by a previously blocking institution (that is, a PU has been received on an MRR record), the institution will not have to request Administrative Relief for the disbursement record increase to be accepted.
II. ADJUSTING AUTHORIZATIONS BY REPORTING NEGATIVE DISBURSEMENTS
If a students acknowledged disbursement amount, shown on your latest requested YTD or in your processed student records from a submission after the last requested YTD, exceeds the actual amount you paid that student, OR if the student received an overpayment, you must report the negative disbursement amount to RFMS.You should continue to submit the approved student data through your normal reporting media (electronic or tape). WE WILL NO LONGER ACCEPT DECREASE AWARD REPORTS BY PAPER. STARTING WITH THE 1999-2000 AWARD YEAR: You must use the RFMS process instead of the former Federal Pell Grant Program Decrease Award Report
III. ADJUSTING AUTHORIZATIONS BY REQUESTING ADMINISTRATIVE RELIEF
If you find positive adjustments or new recipient records that you need to submit, you may qualify to request Administrative Relief under certain unusual circumstances. These conditions are:
1. the U.S. Department of Education or one of its operating partners made an administrative or
processing error which prevented you from meeting the October 2, 2000 deadline; or
2. an event, such as a natural disaster, prevented you from meeting the deadline, or
3. other unusual circumstances beyond the schools control.
To request Administrative Relief, send a written statement describing the problem in detail. Include in the letter
your six-digit Pell institution number
a contact name and phone number.
We must RECEIVE your request for Administrative Relief no later than JANUARY 31, 2001 at the address below:
ATTN: Administrative Relief Coordinator
U.S. Department of Education
Schools Channel/Pell Operations
P.O. Box 23781
Washington, DC 20026-0781
If your request for Administrative Relief is approved, we will notify you by letter. You may then submit the approved student data through your normal reporting media (electronic or tape). If you submit via tape, you must include a copy of our letter approving your request along with your tape and send both to the address provided below. RFMS will adjust your Federal Pell Grant authorization to reflect the adjusted award amounts and will send you an updated 1999-2000 Electronic Statement of Account (ESOA).
REGULAR MAIL
U.S. Department of Education
Federal Pell Grant Program
C/O ACS-GSG
P.O. Box 6565
Rockville, MD 20850-4389COURIER SERVICE
U.S. Department of Education
Federal Pell Grant Program
C/O ACS-GSG
Mail Stop 3250, One Curie Court
Rockville, MD 20850-4389 |
IV. ADJUSTING AUTHORIZATIONS THROUGH AUDIT REPORTS
If you find any positive adjustments and/or new recipient records you need to submit and you do not qualify for Administrative Relief, your institution may seek funding for such adjustments when they are brought to the attention of the U.S. Department of Education in accordance with 34 CFR 690.83 (d) of the Federal Pell Grant program regulations.
You may send questions concerning the audit authorization adjustment process to:
U.S. Department of Education
Data Management and Analysis Division
Document Receipt and Control Center
ATTN: Federal Pell Grant Authorization Adjustments
P.O. Box 44805, LEnfant Plaza Station
Washington, DC 20026-4805
You may also call the Document Receipt and Control Center at (202) 205-1932. Do not submit Audit Reports to the Schools Channel/Pell Operations.
V. USING A NEW REPORTING OPPORTUNITY ON THE WEB
Beginning approximately October 10, 2000, an institution may, if it chooses, submit data for post-deadline processing using the Pell Grants on the Web site, located at www.pellgrantsonline.ed.gov, rather than using a batch or tape process. This new flexibility will be particularly useful if there are only a few adjustments to be made at a time.
As with the regular RFMS batch process, award decreases will be accepted automatically; award increases will be accepted only if you have been given Administrative Relief in accordance with the steps outlined above. By early November you will be able to use this for submissions of previously blocked awards. (Until then, you can use the batch function for this purpose.)
When you use the Pell Grants Web site, we will adjust your Federal Pell Grant authorization to reflect the decrease award amounts and we will send you an updated 1999-00 Electronic Statement of Account (ESOA).
If you have any questions concerning these instructions, please contact the Pell Grant Hotline at 1-800-4PGRANT (1-800-474-7268) or send an email to pell_systems@ed.gov.
Sincerely,
Kathleen G. Wicks
Acting Director Pell Operations
Schools Channel |