A question for a friend!!

IrishIzCPNP, MSN, RN, APRN, NP · Dec 12, 2014

No fraud or nothing just professionally!!

Wrong. There has been fraud. She has lied on documents...documents where she probably signed or clicked a box stating all the information was true. She did this to continue to receive money she didn't deserve. Wah she couldn't afford school... Let me tell you most of us can't afford school and that's why we have loans and debt...because of our honesty.

So your "friend" is a liar and a thief and has commit fraud.

dannygurl84 · Dec 12, 2014

Federal student aid fraud won't be any picnic once the government figures it out either. The least bad outcome I can imagine is that they're forced to repay the fraudulent aid, and the IRS will assist by withholding income tax refunds and garnishing wages until the amount is satisfied. And she'll probably never be able to get federal student aid again.
Why can't your "friend" just be honest and work her ass off within the rules like the rest of us do? She's stealing taxpayer money to which she has no right.

First of all get off of my post talking about my friend like that. You or nobody else knows her situation and yes she do work. She not stealing no money from none of yall ok.

dannygurl84 · Dec 12, 2014

Wrong. There has been fraud. She has lied on documents...documents where she probably signed or clicked a box stating all the information was true. She did this to continue to receive money she didn't deserve. Wah she couldn't afford school... Let me tell you most of us can't afford school and that's why we have loans and debt...because of our honesty.
So your "friend" is a liar and a thief and has commit fraud.

Did I say no negative comments didn't you read that? I came on here asking for positive advice not to be talked down on. You don't know her situation, I'm telling some of it. Back off!!!!

dannygurl84 · Dec 12, 2014

That's what I thought. This definitely is a very sketchy situation and I have a feeling the OP isn't being forthcoming to the extent of how this is involved with financial aid. I strongly believe their "friend" is willfully committing fraud, and will be caught either by the school or the BON.

I didn't mean to like this post because I don't but my friend is not a fraud.

IrishIzCPNP, MSN, RN, APRN, NP · Dec 12, 2014

Did I say no negative comments didn't you read that? I came on here asking for positive advice not to be talked down on. You don't know her situation, I'm telling some of it. Back off!!!!

You don't get to dictate the responses given to you.

I don't care what her situation is. She's a liar and a fraud and her "story" isn't relevant to the fact she lied.

Let me give you a piece of advice...grow up some. You are coming across extremely immature and this isn't going to work out well for you down the road.

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Dec 12, 2014

If all you are asking about is whether she will get in trouble for changing her name from her maiden name to her married name, no, of course not. We get asked that often-- "If I went to school and got married before I apply for NCLEX, will my transcript that's under my maiden name be accepted?" and such. Plenty of people use their maiden names and then start using a spouse's name at some point for whatever reason-- cf. Hilary Rodham, who practiced law under that name for years after her marriage to Bill Clinton, then started using Hilary Rodham Clinton when he became an elected official and candidate.

So if that's all the question is, then it's no different than getting a new driver's license when you marry and change your name. Transcript offices, boards of nursing, and debtors of many stripes (including credit cards and student loans) know how to change the name on a piece of paper with a name change for marriage or divorce or any other non-fraudulent reason, including "Because I felt like it."

If, however, my cynical colleagues above are correct and she has been concealing the fact of a legal marriage to someone who has a paying job for the purposes of getting financial aid based on her own income alone because reporting his would decrease her eligibility (and sometimes it doesn't, and she should find out so she will sleep better at night), well ... if she does this and is found out and it does matter, she won't have to worry about getting negativity from anyone here. She'll get plenty from people in authority.

WookieeRN, BSN, MSN, RN · Dec 12, 2014

Did I say no negative comments didn't you read that? I came on here asking for positive advice not to be talked down on. You don't know her situation, I'm telling some of it. Back off!!!!

First, this is a public forum, you don't get to dictate the kind of responses you get. Also, as this is a public forum you must be careful of identifying details you put out about others, and your acquaintances on this forum. Just an FYI.

Second, if she is declaring her husband's income on her tax forms and for her FAFSA she is not committing fraud. There will be no backlash for changing her name. It is just a little weird as to why she waited so long, but if there is no impropriety behind withholding her married name (and the fact that she is married and has been for the duration of the program), there should be no issue.

HOWEVER, If she is NOT declaring her husband's income on her tax forms and for her FAFSA (and is not filing her tax return as "married but filing separately" I believe) and is receiving grant money she otherwise would not because of that fact, then that is fraud and it WILL be caught. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but the government doesn't play this game and she could eventually lose her license even if it is years from now. I am saying this as someone who has witnessed this happen to someone else personally.The government ALWAYS finds out and takes the steps to correct this kind of thing. The school will most likely alert the BON and that opens a whole other can of worms.

The reason posters are saying that she is committing fraud is because of what you said in your original post:

The reason she have been doing that is because she is scared that she will loose her grants and she nor her husband can't afford to come out of pocket for tution.

It leaves us, and most schools, to ask the question: is she lying about her marriage to get more money for school. (That IS fraud, and people can and do go to jail for it) Most name changes will require the school to ask for a marriage license or the court paperwork which will be DATED. She's basically asking to be investigated by the school for potential fraud by doing that. As soon as they see that she has been married for the duration of the program they can and will send it down to FA (because they have to) and it will come out. They also will not overlook it, and will report it so that it doesn't affect their standing with the federal government and their other students that receive aid and were honest on their paperwork.

The amount of fraud that financial aid departments see is astounding and they always jump to the worst case scenario and work backwards in these cases. Your friend needs to be prepared that this may backfire on her badly. Schools can, and have, retroactively denied degrees for something like this.

At this point, if the above scenario is happening, there is nothing can really do to fix it except tell the school now and own up to it.

But then again, if your friend is being honest, has declared both hers and her husband's income to the school, she has nothing to worry about.

ktwlpn, LPN · Dec 13, 2014

Yowza!!! It smells like fraud to me and YES, that is stealing from us ALL.I have worked with plenty of people who got caught lying on grant apps and had to pay it all back.

TriciaJ, RN · Dec 13, 2014

First of all get off of my post talking about my friend like that. You or nobody else knows her situation and yes she do work. She not stealing no money from none of yall ok.

If there's no fraud involved, then I don't get what the dilemma is. Your "friend" can just apply for a name change on all her legal documents, using her marriage certificate as proof. If she has not defrauded anyone, there should be no issue here. Is there something you've missed telling us?

roser13, ASN, RN · Dec 13, 2014

First of all get off of my post talking about my friend like that. You or nobody else knows her situation and yes she do work. She not stealing no money from none of yall ok.

This is not "your" post. This is a public forum and as has been said, you don't get to have any say-so whatsoever about the responses.

Of course we don't know any more details about your "friend" than you have told us. Unfortunately, you may have shared more than you intended to with regard to your friend's actions & motives. Most of us have been around for a while and are pretty well versed in how folks try to use/abuse the system.

Lastly, your comment that "she not stealing no money from none of y'all" is totally offensive to any honest person. So, in your world, stealing and fraud should only matter to the one who is stolen from?

Not to mention that if your "friend" is fraudulently obtaining federal grants & loans, then she IS stealing from all us, the American public.

ktwlpn, LPN · Dec 13, 2014

I'm not sure any of us comprehended the OP's true meaning of the post,I'm sorry if that's the case.Maybe we are all in the wrong.The sentence structure and grammar was tricky.

OP, Let me be the first to say I look forward to your posts as you go through nursing school and experience clinicals.

RNsRWe, ASN, RN · Dec 13, 2014

I'm curious about something, dannygurl84 (are you 30 years old? You don't seem to be...). Anyway, you insist rather vehemently that no one respond negatively to something you want feedback about. If you only expect sunshine and roses and "positivity", then why did you post the question at all? Either you KNOW this is a bad situation and just don't want to hear the truth, or you DON'T recognize this is a bad situation and you may very well be facing some ethics challenges in the future.

Your writing skills suggest you are not a native English speaker, or you have quite a lot of remedial work to do to reach college-level abilities. Or both. You might want to address that before continuing on into nursing; just a suggestion.

At this point, you know what answers you got on the subject, and know that no one here believes that your "friend" is being honest or honorable. At best she is ignorant of the law; at worst she is fully cognizant of it and is doing her best to evade it. Either way, it's a losing situation in the long run.