Disbursing Pell CHAPTER

4
Awards
This chapter explains how payments can be made and when payments can be made. A school
must pay any student who is eligible (including payment for less-than-half-time students), and
must make payments for all eligible periods of enrollment (including remaining eligibility for
students in summer school terms).

GENERAL SFA REQUIREMENTS Cash Management Cite

The cash management regulations provide uniform rules for 34 CFR 668, Subpart K
disbursing and managing funds for all programs (see the SFA
Handbook: Institutional Eligibility and Participation [Volume 2] for more
information). There are also some Pell-specific disbursement rules that Credit to Account Cite
we’ll discuss in this chapter. 34 CFR 668.164(d)

Methods of Disbursement
There are several ways a school can pay a Pell to a student. The Direct Disbursement Cite
school can: 34 CFR 668.164(c)

• credit the student’s account for any outstanding education

expenses, or

• pay the student directly by check or EFT, or cash dispensed to

the student for which the school gets a signed receipt.

The school must have authorization from the student to pay him
or her by EFT (see the SFA Handbook: Institutional Eligibility and
Participation [Volume 2] for more about this requirement). Usually, a
school will use the Pell Grant to credit the student’s account for any
unpaid charges for tuition and fees (and room and board, if provided
by the school), and then will pay the remaining Pell Grant (if any) to
the student for remaining living expenses.

Limitation on credit to account

The school can use the Pell Grant to pay charges besides tuition
and fees or room and board provided by the school only if the student
gives written authorization. The school can’t require the student to
authorize payment of such charges. As with any SFA funds, payments
can be made only for education expenses.10 If a credit balance remains
after the Pell is credited to the student’s account, the balance must be
returned to the student unless the student provides written
authorization for the school to hold the funds. (See the SFA Handbook:

10. Pell funds can’t be used to repay a student’s loan. Loan payments aren’t considered an education expense.

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Institutional Eligibility and Participation [Volume 2] for more on

authorizations and credit balances.)

Early Payment Option

Early Payment Cite A school can pay a student before the beginning of a payment
34 CFR 668.164(f) period if the student’s already registered for that payment period. The
earliest a school can disburse a Pell is 10 days before the first day of
classes in the payment period. Remember that in a clock-hour
program or a nonterm or nonstandard term credit-hour program, the
school can’t pay a student until he or she has completed the
coursework for the previous payment period (see Chapter 2 of this
volume).

If the school disburses the Pell before the payment period begins,
but the student never actually begins attending any classes, the school
must return the money to the Pell account. (If the student begins
attending some but not all of his or her classes, the school may have to
recalculate the award—see Chapter 5.)

Notification of Payment
Notification Cite The school must notify the student of the amount he or she will be
34 CFR 668.165(a)(1) paid and the method of payment (by credit to the student’s account or
directly to the student). If the school will be paying the student by
check, it must tell the student when the check will be available and
where to go to pick it up. (It’s helpful to include the cashier’s office
hours in any notification.)

Late Disbursements
Late Disbursements Cite Ordinarily, a student who has lost his or her Pell eligibility before
34 CFR 668.164(g) receiving a disbursement can’t be paid. However, in some cases a
school can pay a student if it received the student’s valid output
document while the student was eligible for payment, but the student
Late Disbursement Example lost eligibility before his or her account was credited or he or she
Jenna enrolls at Hart University. She sub- received a payment. The school must have received the student’s valid
mits a valid SAR during the second week output document before the student became ineligible, and can only
of classes and is eligible for payment at that pay the student if the funds are used to pay educational costs incurred
time. But by the time the check is processed while the student was enrolled and eligible. Also, the student must be
for her and she has been notified to pick it ineligible solely because he or she is no longer enrolled. Finally, the
up, she has withdrawn from school. school must make the disbursement within 90 days after the student
becomes ineligible. A late Pell disbursement can be made by crediting
Hart can pay Jenna if it makes the dis- it to the student’s account to cover institutional charges or by paying it
bursement within 90 days of her with- directly to the student (in cash or by check or EFT) for
drawal. The aid administrator at Hart
noninstitutional costs, such as living expenses. (See the SFA Handbook:
must first determine what aid Jenna has
earned for the enrollment period still exists
Institutional Eligibility and Participation [Volume 2] for more information
(that is, what aid hasn’t been paid to on late disbursements.)
Jenna).

REVIEWING STUDENT ELIGIBILITY

The school must review the student’s eligibility at the time it’s going to
Reviewing Eligibility Before
make a payment. For instance, a student might have been making
Payment Cite
34 CFR 690.75(a)
satisfactory academic progress when award letters were mailed in the
spring term, but no longer be making progress when he or she comes
to the business office for payment at the beginning of the fall term.

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The school must make sure the student still meets the eligibility
requirements for the Pell Grant (as discussed in Chapter 1 of this
volume), and that the appropriate documentation is kept.

The school is liable for incorrect payments made to the student

because of a mistake by the school. The financial aid administrator is
subject to a $10,000 fine, a prison sentence, or both if he or she
knowingly makes false or misleading statements.

FIRST PAYMENT OPTIONS

In general, the school can’t make a disbursement to the student until Valid Output Document
it has a valid output document. If the student needs to make Requirement Cite
corrections to his or her data, or the financial aid administrator wishes 34 CFR 690.61
to use professional judgment to adjust the student’s data, the student
must submit the SAR for reprocessing (using Part 2) or the school
must make the changes through EDE and receive the new output
document before making a disbursement. See Chapter 9 of the SFA
Handbook: Student Eligibility (Volume 1) for more information on when
the student’s data must be reprocessed.

Verification Exception
The school can make an interim disbursement to a student who is Verification Interim Disbursement
selected for verification (including a student selected for verification Cite
by the school rather than the CPS). The school doesn’t need to have a 34 CFR 668.58
valid output document to make such a disbursement. See Chapter 8 of
the SFA Handbook: Student Eligibility (Volume 1) for more information.

TIMING OF PAYMENTS
The school can use its discretion in disbursing funds within a payment
Timing of Payments Cite
period to best meet a student’s needs. For instance, some schools pay
34 CFR 690.76(a)
students on the first day of class in a payment period, while others wait
until the end of the add/drop period. Other schools pay students in
monthly installments to help meet living expenses throughout the
payment period. (Note that if the school rations payments to students
by crediting the entire payment for the payment period to the
student’s account and making periodic payments to the student from
these funds, it must have the student’s written authorization.) In all
cases, however, the full amount due the student for a payment period
must be disbursed to the student before the end of the payment
period.

Retroactive Payment
The school can pay a student retroactively for any completed
payment periods within the award year if the student was eligible for Retroactive Payment Cite
34 CFR 690.76(b)
payment in those periods. Thus, if the school receives a valid output
document for the student while he or she is enrolled as an eligible
student in the summer term, but the student was also enrolled and
eligible for payment in the fall term, that student must be paid
retroactively for the fall term. However, the fall payment would be
based on the hours completed by the student for that term. If the

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student had enrolled full time at the beginning of the fall term but
dropped to half-time status by the end of the term, the retroactive
payment must be based on half-time status.

A school can make any retroactive payments in one lump sum to

decrease the administrative workload.

Releasing a Check Later

Releasing a Check Cite If the student doesn’t pick up the check on time, the school must
34 CFR 690.78(c) still make the check available to the student for 20 days after the
student’s last day of enrollment for that award year. (Instead of holding
the check for that period, the school can cancel the first check and
issue a new check when the student requests payment.)
Releasing a Check Example
Eileen attends the fall term at Ivers
Community College. Ivers credits Eileen’s If the student hasn’t picked up the check at the end of the 20-day
account for tuition and fees early in the period, the school can credit the student’s account only for
term and sends a letter to her to notify her outstanding charges for tuition and fees and room and board for the
of the payment, and to tell her to pick up a award year. If the student contacts the school to request the check
check for the remainder of the grant. more than 20 days after the student’s last day of enrollment, the school
However, at the end of the term, Eileen still can pay the student through the next payment period (if it chooses)
hasn’t picked up the check. even though the student’s no longer enrolled. The school can mail the
check to the student rather than waiting for him or her to return and
Ivers must release the check to Eileen if she pick it up.
claims it within 20 days after the end of
the fall term. If she withdraws from school
Payments to students who have completed a program
but enrolls again later in the award year,
If there’s a delay in a school receiving its Pell funds, some students
Ivers must again make the payment for fall
living expenses available to her. could complete their program or academic year before receiving their
final Pell payments. If this happens, as soon as the school receives its
funds, it must pay any student for whom it received a valid output
document. Even though these students would receive their payments
late, no regulations would be violated given that the students had
previously met all the requirements for payment.

STUDENTS WHO WITHDRAW AND LATER RETURN

Paying Refunded Amount If a student withdraws during a payment period, the school might
Example need to return Pell funds to the Department if the student has not
Sarven Technical Institute pays Kerr a Pell earned a portion of his or her Pell Grant (see Chapter 6 of the SFA
disbursement of $875 for the first of three Handbook: Institutional Eligibility and Participation [Volume 2]). If the
payment periods. Kerr then withdraws in same student later returns to school, there can be some restrictions on
that payment period. Sarven performs a further Pell payments the student can receive.
return of Title IV funds calculation and
returns $400 to the Pell account. If Kerr re- Paying Returned Amount
enrolls in the same award year, he must be A student who withdraws but re-enrolls in the program in the
paid the $400 when he re-enrolls in the
same award year can be paid the Pell Grant amount that was returned
program. When he completes the hours in
the first payment period, he’ll be eligible for
to the Pell Grant account.
the Pell disbursement for the next payment
period. Retaking Hours and Courses
In general, students at term-based credit-hour schools can receive
Pell funds for retaking coursework. The situation is more complicated
at clock-hour or nonterm credit-hour schools. If a student withdraws
from a clock-hour program or nonterm credit-hour program but re-
enrolls in the same award year, or in the subsequent award year, the

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student will be held accountable for the remaining clock or credit

hours in the payment period before the next disbursement of the Pell
Grant can be made. However, in the case of a student who re-enrolls
two years after withdrawing, the school can pay the student without
waiting until the student has completed the hours from the previous
period of enrollment.

If the student receives his or her Scheduled Award for a clock-hour

program, completes the entire program, and later decides to retake
the program, the student could again be paid for the entire program.

The difference in the treatment of a student at a clock-hour or

nonterm credit-hour school versus a term-based credit-hour school is
that at a term-based credit-hour school, a student can be paid to repeat
a course and doesn’t necessarily have to complete the program before
he or she can be paid for that course. Generally, at a clock-hour or
nonterm credit-hour school, the student can be paid again for clock
hours or credit hours that he or she has already completed at that
school only if he or she has completed a program and re-enrolls to
take that program again or to take another program.

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