The Financial Aid & Scholarships office sends a courtesy notification to federal student aid applicants who are close to or exceeding their Federal Pell Grant Lifetime Eligibility Used limit.
Pell Grant Lifetime Limits
There is a maximum amount of Federal Pell Grant funds you can receive over your lifetime. You can receive the Pell Grant for no more than 12 terms or the equivalent (roughly six years) or 600%. This is called the Federal Pell Grant Lifetime Eligibility Used (LEU).
To understand more about the Pell Grant LEU please visit:
https://studentaid.gov/understand-aid/types/grants/pell/calculate-eligibility
Where can I find my Federal Pell Grant LEU percentage?
You can view your Pell Grant LEU by using your federal student aid ID and password and logging into https://studentaid.gov. The U.S. Department of Education (ED) also sends email notifications to students who have used 450% or more of their LEU.
How is my LEU calculated?
To determine how much of the maximum six years (600%) of Pell Grant you have used each year, ED compares the actual amount you received for the award year with the scheduled award amount for that aid year. The scheduled award is the maximum amount of Federal Pell Grant you can receive for the aid year if enrolled full-time for the full school year. A scheduled award represents 100% of your Pell Grant eligibility for that aid year. If you receive the full amount of your scheduled award, then you have used 100%. If you were not enrolled for the full year or not enrolled full-time (or both), a percentage of the scheduled award will be calculated.
ED keeps track of your LEU by adding together the percentages of your Pell Grant scheduled awards that you received for each aid year. Once the total reaches 600%, you can no longer receive Pell Grant funding.
I have questions about this, who do I call?
You can contact the Department of Education directly at 1-800-4-FED-AID (1-800-433-
3243). You can also contact the Financial Aid & Scholarships office at (805) 437-8530 and ask to speak with a Financial Aid Counselor.
