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(Application Processing) Subject: CPS Reprocessing on Nov. 13, 2017 and in December 2017 to Address fafsa.gov Issue with Incorrect Tax Filing Status Values

Posted Date:November 9, 2017

Author: Federal Student Aid

Subject: CPS Reprocessing on Nov. 13, 2017 and in December 2017 to Address fafsa.gov Issue with Incorrect Tax Filing Status Values

The Central Processing System (CPS) will conduct a reprocessing on Nov. 13, 2017, to resolve an issue on the 2018–19 fafsa.gov website. The issue caused incorrect information to be submitted to the CPS and displayed on the Student Aid Report (SAR) sent to applicants. There will be a follow-up reprocessing for records that were placed on hold or were in an application or correction status and saved prior to the fix being implemented. This reprocessing will occur in December 2017.

Issue Background

As described in the Oct. 26, 2017 electronic announcement posted to the Information for Financial Aid Professionals website, applicants may have been impacted by this fafsa.gov issue if they initially indicated in the student section that they have “already completed” or “will file” an IRS income tax return and provided responses for subsequent financial questions in error, then returned to the first IRS income tax return completion question and changed their response to “not going to file.”

When this scenario occurred, the logic that assigns blank or zero responses to financial questions in response to the updated “not going to file” value was not functioning correctly. As a result, applicants impacted by this issue received 2018–19 SARs that listed an invalid Tax Return Filing Status value (such as “married, filing jointly”) instead of the blank value that should be generated due to the “not going to file” response to the IRS income tax return question on fafsa.gov.

We implemented a resolution to this issue on the fafsa.gov website on Oct. 26, 2017.

Reprocessing Information

Any affected records will be reprocessed on Nov. 13, 2017. Once that happens, we will void all previous transactions that have the incorrect data for students impacted by this issue. This additional action will help ensure students do not submit corrections to earlier transactions which result in the incorrect non-blank financial information carrying forward to new transactions.

Several methods exist for schools to identify records resulting from the Nov. 13, 2017 reprocessing:

  • Reprocessed Institutional Student Information Records (ISIRs) will be sent under the IGSG19OP message class.
  • SARs and ISIRs will include SAR comment code 172, which states, “This SAR was produced because we processed a change to your information based on information reported to us by another agency or as a result of a processing system change. Review your SAR to see what effect, if any, this change has had on your application, and call 1-800-4-FED-AID (1-800-433-3243) if you have any questions.”
  • ISIRs produced as a result of the reprocessing will include a value of “02” for the Reprocessed Reason Code (ISIR field #248).
  • The FAA Information page in Student Inquiry on the FAA Access to CPS Online website will display “02 - Reprocessed for blanking issue” as the Reprocessing Code for the transaction resulting from the reprocessing. The Reprocessing Reason Code will not display in FAA Access to CPS Online until after we implement updates to the site in late January 2018.

In December 2017, we will post a separate electronic announcement with details regarding the follow-up reprocessing, which will address applications and corrections saved on the fafsa.gov website or placed on hold for signature or agency matching results prior to the implementation of the issue resolution on Oct. 26, 2017.

Contact Information

If you have any questions regarding this message, contact CPS/SAIG Technical Support at 1-800-330-5947 (TDD/TTY 1-800-511-5806) or by email at CPSSAIG@ed.gov.

You also can post questions to FSATECH. FSATECH is an electronic mailing list for technical questions about Federal Student Aid systems, software, and mainframe products. For more information about subscribing to FSATECH, visit https://www2.ed.gov/offices/OSFAP/services/fsatechsubscribe.html.