The U.S. Department of Education is preparing to launch a nationwide effort this fall to combat identity theft and fraud in Federal student aid programs.
According to an agency announcement on June 6, the initiative aims to safeguard taxpayer dollars and ease the administrative burden on colleges and universities struggling to manage the rising threat of fake applications.
Central to the new effort, the Education Department’s Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) will implement new identity validation requirements beginning in the 2025–2026 academic year. The plan includes permanent screening procedures for every Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) applicant and updated documentation standards for verifying identity.
In the short term, institutions must validate the identity of first-time student aid applicants enrolled for summer 2025.
The new policy requires students flagged for identity verification to present valid, unexpired government-issued photo identification – either in person or over live video – to authorized school personnel, and schools must retain a copy of the documentation.
The Education Department said those steps build on anti-fraud measures introduced in May and are expected to substantially reduce the risk of aid being disbursed to fraudulent applicants.
As of early June, FSA fraud detection efforts flagged nearly 150,000 suspect identities in current FAFSA submissions. Those people, the agency said, will not receive aid until they complete live identity verification through their college or university.
“When rampant fraud is taking aid away from eligible students, disrupting the operations of colleges, and ripping off taxpayers, we have a responsibility to act,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. “Today’s actions will implement temporary changes to the current verification process to prevent identity theft fraud. We will continue to build longer-term solutions that reduce the administrative burden on institutions and protect American taxpayers who underwrite federal student aid programs.”
