Maintained for Historical Purposes

This resource is being maintained for historical purposes only and is not currently applicable.

Tolerance Option Instead of Correction

AwardYear: 1998 - 1999
ChapterNumber: 3
ChapterTitle: Completing The Verification Process
Section: Tolerance Option Instead of Correction
PageNumber: 1


Verification can sometimes uncover errors in application data that are so minor that the applicant’s eligibility for aid will not be significantly affected. Therefore, ED has established a tolerance option for students completing verification.

If the original application contains any errors in nondollar items, such as household size, you may not use the tolerance option. The student must follow the applicable correction procedures detailed in the next section. However, if there are only dollar amount errors, and all dollar errors are within the tolerance limit, you may award the student’s aid based on the application data as is, without requiring that the EFC be recalculated. Note that if you do not wish to perform the calculations needed to determine whether the errors fall within the tolerance, you may simply have the student submit the corrected data for reprocessing (see the next section).



If you choose to calculate the total dollar error in order to determine if the tolerance applies, first add the original (uncorrected) AGI12 and untaxed income amounts. From that amount, subtract the original U.S. income tax paid to get Total A. Then, add the correct AGI and untaxed income amounts and subtract from that total the correct U.S. income tax paid to get Total B. If the difference between Totals A and B is $400 or less (and there are only dollar amount errors), the errors are within tolerance; recalculation is not required. In such a case, you would use verification status code “T” when reporting the Pell Grant payment. Verification Status Codes section earlier in this chapter.)