Life After AmeriCorps: Using the Education Award

Transcription

1 Life After AmeriCorps: Using the Education Award *All attendees will be muted during the webinar. If you have a question at any point, feel free to bring it up in the chat and we will address it at the end of the presentation. To access the chat, click the chat button with the word bubble above it in the upper right section of the Meeting Window.

2 WELCOME! About Me: Name Bryce Bateman Education BA in Economics from the University of Washington Previous Positions FWPS AmeriCorps Tutor Current Position WSC AmeriCorps Leader Service Helping all of you succeed in your service term and beyond! Previous Webinar: Professional Development Link to the recording Link to the PowerPoint PDF

3 Goals for Today Today s webinar will help you use your Segal Education Award by Walking you through the basics of accessing your award and creating disbursement requests for loan payments or current educational expenses Sharing what you can use the award to pay for (including studying abroad and non-traditional education opportunities) and other rules around its use Showing you how the National Service Trust can pay for any interest that accrued on your loans in forbearance during the service term Sharing resources to help you learn how your education award and interest payments will be taxed

4 Segal Education Award: The Basics Every AmeriCorps member who successfully completes their term of service receives an education award. Partial awards are available for members who leave early for compelling reasons. This year, the value of the award is $5,730. You gain access to the award within a few weeks of finishing your term (will receive an notification when it is available) Funds are held by the National Service Trust and are not taxed until you remove them Can be used to repay qualified student loans and to cover current/future educational expenses Must be used within 7 years of the end of the year of service in which you acquire them Can accumulate up to 2 full education awards

5 Segal Education Awards: Where Can I Use It? The education award can be used at any higher education institution, foreign or domestic, that currently participates in the Department of Education s Title IV student aid programs. This category includes most post-secondary colleges, universities, and technical schools access this spreadsheet for a current list of all domestic Title IV schools or check with your institution s financial aid office. You can find information about which international schools accept federal student aid here. Some institutions will match your education award. A list of these can be found on the Corporation for National and Community Service website.

6 Segal Education Award: What Can I Use it For? Paying back qualified student loan debt or covering current educational expenses. Anything that falls under the cost of attendance can be eligible for the education award. This includes tuition, books and supplies, transportation, room and board, and other expenses. Educational expenses for non-degree courses offered through a Title IV institution (e.g. continuing education courses or workshops). If you re a veteran, you can use it to pay for programs of education, apprenticeship, or on the job training approved under the Montgomery G.I. Bill and the Post 9/11 G.I. Bill, regardless of whether the institution is Title IV or not (non-veterans can use their award to pay for these programs if they are run through a Title IV institution).

7 Segal Education Award: What CAN T I Use it For? Repaying any type of loan that is not backed by the federal government (even if you took them out to cover educational expenses). Paying for past expenses that weren t originally paid for by a qualified loan (e.g. a bill for outstanding tuition costs would not be eligible). Paying for tuition at an institution that is not a Title IV school. If you have questions about whether you can use you education award for an expense, contact your institution s financial aid office or your loan provider.

8 Segal Education Award: How Do I Use It? After you end your term of service, you will receive an notification indicating that your education award is available. To access it, you will log into your my.americorps.gov account and click on My Education Award.

9 Segal Education Award: How Do I Use It? On the My Education Award page you can see the value and expiration date of past awards, and the projected value of the education award for your current service term. To authorize a payment from your award, click Create Education Award Payment Request in the left-hand column. Once you have made disbursements from your award, you can also track that information through this page and see what your balances are.

10 Segal Education Award: How Do I Use It? Here you will see the start date of your first term and your current available balance. Under Payment Type you will have two options, Loan Payment or Education Expenses. Each page looks a little bit different, so let s look at them individually.

11 Segal Education Award: How Do I Use It? Loan Payment: To use the award to pay back a qualified student loan, you will first choose how much of your education award you want authorized for disbursement. After choosing an amount, click Search for Institutions to find your loan holder. After finding them, use the comment box if you have more than one loan and need to specify a particular loan number/loan type. Click all of the Certify and Submit checkboxes and submit!

12 Segal Education Award: How Do I Use It? Education Expenses: To pay for current educational expenses, you will first specify which semester/term you want this payment applied to (e.g. Fall 2016, 2 nd Quarter 2017, First Semester 2016). Next you will enter the amount you are authorizing for this disbursement and find the institution you would like the payment to go to. Finally, you will check the boxes under Certify and Submit and press submit. NOTE: Payment requests greater than $10 will be made in two installments, one at the beginning of the term and one halfway through.

13 Segal Education Award: How Do I Use It? Choosing an Institution: To find the institution you want to authorize a payment to, search using any combination of its name, city, and state. After you find and select the organization, its information will populate within your request. If you do not find your institution at first, try using other search criteria. To find a school it is sometimes easiest to search by state or country then to locate it in the list of institutions that appears. If you can t find your lending institution, use a Google search to see if they have any alternate versions of their name that may be in the system (look for acronyms in particular).

14 Segal Education Award: How Do I Use It? Choosing an Institution: If you can t find your institution, follow these steps: 1. Click on "not found" in the Institution listing. 2. When the screen comes back up enter all the Institution information you have. 3. Complete the certify and submit buttons. 4. Click submit. 5. The request has gone to the Trust for manual processing and submission to the institution. Any manually processed payment request can only be processed after a correctly completed voucher form is received. The Trust has up to 30 days to process the manual request. You can see the status of your request from your homepage or call the Hotline at for additional help.

15 Segal Education Award: How Do I Use It? After entering in all of your information and submitting, the Trust will pass the request onto the school or loan holder you have requested a payment for. This institution will fill out their portion of the form and certify the accuracy of the information, then send it to CNCS for payment. When you request a payment, your Available Balance will be adjusted by the amount of the request. Once it is disbursed, your Award Balance will reflect the payment. For current educational expenses, half of the amount requested will be paid to your institution at the beginning of the term you specified, and the other half will be made halfway through the term. If you are paying for current educational expenses and withdraw from/drop classes, any tuition refunds you are entitled to will go back into your award account with the Trust, at which point you can use them for other qualified expenses (up to the expiration date).

16 Requesting Loan Interest Payments If you successfully completed your service term, you are eligible to apply to have the National Service Trust pay off up to 100% of the interest that has accrued on your qualified loans in forbearance during your service. The percentage of your interest that the Trust will pay is determined by the type of service (full or part-time) you accomplished and the length of your service period. Any amount they pay is made in addition to your education award (nothing will be deducted from your balance). While any amount the Trust pays towards accrued interest will be treated as income on your next tax return, you will end up paying in taxes a fraction of what you would have paid in interest (something we will discuss later). *The Trust can only pay interest if you have completed your service and earned an award if you fail to complete your service you will not be eligible for interest repayment unless you left for compelling personal circumstances and earned a pro-rated award.

17 Requesting Loan Interest Payments To request interest payments for your loans in forbearance during your service term, log into my.americorps.gov. On your home page, click Create Interest Payment Request in the lefthand column.

18 Requesting Loan Interest Payments Once you are on this page, select the term of service you would like to request an interest payment for. As before, you will search for your lending institution and select them from the list that appears, which will populate the form with their relevant information. If you have more than one loan with an institution, you may specify which loan you would like an interest payment for in the Comments box. To finish your request, click the checkbox in the Certify and Submit section, then press Submit!

19 Requesting Loan Interest Payments After you submit your request, it will be passed along to your loan company so they may certify the request and submit it to CNCS for approval. If possible, make any interest payment requests BEFORE you use any of your education award to pay back student loans. This will keep you from using your award to pay for interest that the Trust would have paid for you. After the request has gone through, a record will appear in your My AmeriCorps account home page. It should also show up in the statement that the loan company provides to you.

20 Segal Education Award: How is it Taxed? Payments made from an education award or towards interest on your students loans are considered to be included in a member's taxable income in the tax year the payment was made to the school or loan holder. If your education award and interest payments total more than $ in a calendar year you will receive an IRS Form 1099 form from the Trust that you need to use in preparing your tax return. Go to the following link for more information about how the taxes can affect you: Check out AmeriCorps Alums July 2012 newsletter for more information about income tax and some scenarios on what taxes on your education award could look like (you can find updated tax brackets for 2016 here). If you need to speak with a tax professional, check to see if there is any free tax help in your area through the IRS here.

21 Segal Education Award: Transferring Your Award In 2009, legislation was passed allowing AmeriCorps members age 55 or older to transfer their education award to eligible children or grandchildren. To transfer the award you must: Have been at least 55 years of age BEFORE beginning the term of service in which the award was earned. Have begun this term on or after October 1, Complete the required forms (online or paper) to authorize the transfer Make the transfer before the award s seven-year expiration date.

22 Segal Education Award: Transferring Your Award Who is eligible to receive a transferred award? A child, step-child, foster-child, grandchild, or step-grandchild of the individual who earned the award. Must be a U.S. citizen, national, or lawful permanent resident alien. Cannot have already earned or received the aggregate value of two full time education awards. Must be registered in the online system My AmeriCorps to complete the transfer process and access the award (does not need to serve a term). Follow this link for more information on transferring the award. For step-by-step instructions on how to transfer the award, including links to all forms that must be completed, please follow this link.

23 Segal Education Award: Studying Abroad and Alternative Education Studying Abroad List of International Schools accepting Federal Student Loans (Excel download) Department of Education resources for studying abroad AmeriCorps Alums webinar about Doing Good Overseas (Jan 15) Global Service Corps Alternative Education National Outdoor Leadership School offers a match on the education award. Speak to Travis Davis for more info ( ). Contact other programs offices to ask if they qualify for Title IV or partner with organizations who do. Use the Search for Institutions function in My AmeriCorps. REMEMBER: If an international school does not accept Federal Student Loans, research institutions in the U.S. who partner with them. You can often find a study abroad program at a domestic school that accepts the education award, then use that program to travel/study where you originally wanted to.

24 Segal Education Award: Other Resources/Things to Think About ALWAYS speak with your institution s financial aid office before using your education award. They will know if there are matching programs you can take advantage of (or other service oriented scholarships), and will help you figure out if using your award will impact your financial aid package in any way. Follow this link to look through scenarios CNCS has created to highlight different ways to use your award (and things to consider when using it). This page is the central hub for all of the information CNCS has about the education award. You can also find their FAQ document (from 2013) here.

25 Segal Education Award: Other Resources/Things to Think About Watch AmeriCorps Alums webinar The Effective Segal Ed Award (January 2015) for more information on how to best utilize your award. If you need to pursue an extension for your award (meaning you were not able to use it within seven years), you can find more information here. To be eligible for an extension, you must have performed another term of national service during the award s original use period or been unavoidably prevented from using the award. Contact the National Service Hotline at if you have any questions (staffed Monday-Thursday from 6:00am-4:00pm PST)

26 Looking Ahead: Resources and Reminders for the End of Service Remember that to satisfactorily complete your service you must have 1,700 hours accumulated by the end of your term. Use the tracking sheet on our website to check that you are on schedule. If you leave before the end of your term, or you do not complete your hours, you may miss out on your education award and be restricted from serving any more terms in national service organizations. If you are on the WSC health insurance, remember that it expires when you finish your term of service. If you re staying within the state of Washington you can check out your future coverage options here. Access the recording of the previous Life After AmeriCorps: Professional Development webinar here. Find the PDF of the presentation here.

27 Thanks For Listening! If you have any questions about this webinar or any of the resources within, feel free to contact me anytime before August 15 th, 2016 at or over the phone at