You can file a special conditions form. All you have to do is show his records from the department of unemployment security, fill out a couple of forms and everything is oke doke. You can request the form from a financial aid adviser.

Shit happened to me. My dad lost his job back at the end of May. UGH!

I didn't get a dime. I don't think finacial aid should be base on parents income.

Work-study is a form of financial aid that gets you a job instead of a grant. However, you don't need to be part of a work-study program to get a job. Your father's income may have cost you the chance to enroll in a work-study program, but don't think for a second that it somehow means you can't get a job on campus. It'll require more work on your part, but I'm sure it can be done. Try seeing what positions are available at your school, what the requirements are, and apply to those for which you qualify. If you don't feel like searching through your college's website, they probably have some kind of department that deals with student employees. Check it out. If there's nothing on campus, look off campus. Don't get the idea that just because you're in college means that waiting tables is somehow beneath your dignity.

Ah well, I couldn't get financial aid despite the fact that my mom lost her job last year. She still worked part of the year, so we don't qualify. Now I'm trying to support my family and go to school without any aid. It's tough, but that's why I have a real job, not just one at the college. You can still make it work, it will be difficult, but hey, life is pretty difficult.

I just don't get it, until this year I never got grant money even though my mother is a struggling single mom. I always got loans, which weren't even enough to cover all of my schooling. I go to a local community college and I feel as if the only people that get the grant money are the girls with children or the people from out of the country. I have nothing wrong with either groups of people, however I do have a problem with the fact that American students with no children who come from single parents hardly get anything. And no, my mother is not a single mother since she was a young mother, my parents divorced. I will say that some of these girls with children are not deserving of the money. I remember in my first semester there was a girl in my one english class who was too worried about her 'baby daddy drama' then the class. She wound up dropping it and the school had given her an over abundence of grants, she even had enough to buy a back pack which cost $70 at the book store. Ugh, I just don't understand why the people who are undeserving of the money get it while those who are deserving get nothing.

Welcome to government financed education.

Well it's not because I go to a community college; you still get grant money. I was actually shocked I got grant money this year. They always have said my mother makes too much which is hard to believe seeing as she struggles just to pay her bills. I guess now that she is on unemployment I finally qualify.

That sucks, but thousands of students have the same story in this economy, and thousands more didn't get financial aid in the first place when they needed it

Try talking to your university about the special circumstances. A lot of that going around right now.