This addresses a real public policy failure: students with no financial means are denied all financial aid because eligibility is dependent on a third-party with no legal obligations. Imputing that a person has assets to which they have no legal title or right is indefensible policy. Imagine if receiving welfare assistance was contingent on your neighbor's income being sufficiently low and the kind of incentives that would create.
The policy assumption that parents will financially support their adult children is false for a non-trivial percentage of the population, and leads to bad outcomes for those people. People that fall into this crack are often left with no recourse when it comes to public assistance, which leads to loophole hacks like the one in the article.
The policy assumption that parents will financially support their adult children is false for a non-trivial percentage of the population, and leads to bad outcomes for those people. People that fall into this crack are often left with no recourse when it comes to public assistance, which leads to loophole hacks like the one in the article.