Finding Text
FINDING 2025-001: PELL GRANT AWARD Condition In three of the forty-eight student files tested for compliance with Federal Pell Grant Program requirements, we determined the Institution miscalculated the student’s Pell award in one or more payment periods. The students involved were #s 1, 11, and 36. To gain a more accurate projection of the likely questioned costs from this finding, we expanded our testing to include another twenty-five Pell recipients and identified one student who was awarded the incorrect amount. The student’s ID number is 93547. Criteria Pell Grant awards are based on a student’s Student Aid Index (SAI), the academic year structure of the student’s educational program, and the cost of attendance (COA) for a full-time student for a full academic year. For term-based programs, awards are also based on a student’s enrollment intensity (EI). If the student does not begin attendance in all classes for a payment period, resulting in a change in the student’s EI, a school must recalculate the student’s award for that payment period based on the lower EI. Cause The students were enrolled in term-based programs. They did not attend the same number of credits that they were originally scheduled to attend (and on which their Pell payments were based), and the Institution neglected to recalculate the Pell awards and make adjustments to the student accounts. The Institution was not consistently utilizing its third-party servicer’s reports that are designed to identify these discrepancies. Effect and Questioned Costs As outlined below, the students were not paid the proper amount of Pell. Subsequent to our testing, the Institution corrected the Pell awards for each of these students. Over (Under) Student # Disbursed Eligible Award Award Year 1 $1,652 $2,465 $(813) 2024/2025 11 $2,046 $2,465 $(419) 2024/2025 36 $2,465 $1,652 $813 2024/2025 93547 $2,046 $2,465 $(419) 2024/2025 Total Questioned Costs: $2,464 The Institution disbursed a total of $387,481 to the seventy-three students in our original and expanded samples for an overall error rate of 5.5%. When applying these results to the entire population of Pell Grant recipients, we determined it is likely that questioned costs would exceed the $25,000 threshold established in 2 CFR 200.516(a)(3). Recommendation The Institution should follow its established procedures more closely to ensure that, in the future, Pell Grant awards are calculated and disbursed in accordance with the federal regulations. Views of Responsible Officials The Institution concurs with this finding.