Pell Grant eligibility increased 31% after FAFSA simplification, GAO finds

New one US Government Accountability Office report (PDF file) shows that the redesigned Free Application for federal student aid is doing exactly what Congress intended – getting more students into the Pell Grant program and getting far more of them to qualify for the maximum award.

The report examined the first year of the Simplified FAFSA and found significant gains in eligibility, with the largest jumps concentrated among middle-income families, who historically received little or no need-based federal aid.

Nearly 9.9 million students who completed the FAFSA were eligible for Pell Grants in school year 2024–25, an increase of about 570,000 students, or 6%, from the previous year.

Eligibility for the maximum Pell award of $7,395 grew even faster: approximately 7.9 million students qualified, a 31% increase representing approximately 1.9 million additional students.

GAO attributes these results to the FUTURE Act of 2019 and the FAFSA Simplification Act of 2020, which together reshaped the application and the underlying aid formula.

Simple form allows for easy completion

The new FAFSA reduced the number of questions from more than 100 to 18 for some filers, automatically imported tax data from the IRS, and replaced the expected family contribution with a new metric called the Student Aid Index. Congress also increased the Income Security Allowance, raised the threshold for reporting assets in adjusted gross income from $50,000 to $60,000, and created automatic Pell pathways tied to the federal poverty level.

Under the new rules, students whose household income is below 175% or 225% of the federal poverty level (depending on dependency status and family size) automatically qualify for the maximum Pell. The second set of thresholds, ranging from 275% to 400% of poverty, automatically qualifies students for minimum Pell. The minimum award increases to $740 in 2024–25.

GAO also notes that incarcerated students are again eligible for Pell aid after a decades-long exclusion, and students who are homeless or in foster care no longer need to re-verify their status each year.

Middle income families should get help

Key Findings for Families: Simplification worked most for families who previously felt deprived of needs-based assistance. We have long been advocates of filling out the FAFSA, but FAFSA simplification removed an additional barrier to doing so.

At least 350,000 more students with household incomes between $60,001 and $125,000 become Pell-eligible in 2024-25 — at least 61% of the total 570,000-student increase. Within that band, the share of FAFSA filers who qualify increased from 38% to at least 55%.

The picture is even more attractive for maximum prizes. The number of students with household incomes between $40,001 and $80,000 who qualified for the full $7,395 Pell Grant more than doubled, from about 554,000 to at least 1.3 million. GAO attributes this increase to the expanded automatic maximum pell criteria.

Low-income students still make up the vast majority of Pell recipients. Of the 9.9 million eligible students in 2024–25, about 7.4 million (about 75%) had household incomes below $60,001, and nearly all FAFSA filers in that category were eligible.

What does this mean for families

For families considering college affordability, here are some key points.

Average awards increased. The average Pell Award for all eligible students increased by $278 from 2023–24 to 2024–25, driven primarily by an increase in the maximum-award qualifier. Because more than half of eligible students qualify for the full amount in both years, the average award remained at the full $7,395.

Property rules changed. Roughly 2.4 million more students reported no assets on the 2024-25 FAFSA, partly because the threshold for reporting assets increased and partly because households below the automatic maximum Pell income criteria are not required to report assets. Of students who reported no assets, 91% were Pell-eligible and 85% qualified for the maximum.

The “sibling discount” was gone, but most affected families still benefited. The new formula no longer takes into account the number of family members in college, a feature that reduced a student’s expected contribution under the old formula when a sibling is also enrolled. Despite that change, 60% of students with another family member in college in 2024-25 qualify for Pell, up from 55%, and 77% of them qualify for the maximum, up from 48%. Instead of compensating most households for their losses, changes are made to other formulas.

There are some exceptions also. GAO modeled a hypothetical family of four with two children in college, $10,000 in assets and $95,000 in household income – a family that might have qualified for Pell Grants under the old rules but would not under the new rules. However, a similar family with a $70,000 income would be eligible for a larger prize than before.

what happens next

GAO is careful to note what the numbers don’t capture. Fewer students completed the FAFSA in 2024-25 due to well-documented rollout delays, so eligibility totals are likely to be lower relative to the normal cycle. The data also predates changes made under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which restored the small business and family farm asset exemptions on the 2026-27 FAFSA and may reduce Pell eligibility for some students with high household wealth but low income.

However, it’s important to remember that the maximum Pell still covers less of the cost of college than it used to.

According to the Congressional Research Service, the maximum award covered about 80% of tuition, fees, and room and board at a public four-year college in the mid-1970s, about 40% in the early 1990s, and about 30% in 2022–23.

Larger eligibility numbers expand access but do not, in themselves, restore the historical purchasing power of the award.

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