FAQ: Benefits for My Spouse

You can if you’re a full-time faculty, regular full-time staff, or limited service staff member and have been in your eligible position or an equivalent one for three years.

No. Only full-time, benefits-eligible service counts toward the benefit.

Graduate benefits are available for a spouse if you were hired prior to June 30, 1997. If you believe you may be eligible, you can contact the Tuition Benefit Office.  Otherwise, the benefit is available for an undergraduate degree only.

The benefit is 50% of the tuition and technology fees for credit courses taken at Penn towards the attainment of an undergraduate degree, as outlined in the Scholarship for Spouses attending the University of Pennsylvania Policy. It covers a maximum of eight semesters, or the number of credit courses needed to obtain the degree, whichever comes first. It does not cover graduate coursework, nor undergraduate courses taken on a non-degree or post-baccalaureate basis.

Tuition benefits for spouses are not available for schools other than Penn.

Log on to the online tuition management system and click on Tuition Benefits for My Dependent. Choose Request Payment and follow the instructions to apply.

You should submit an application as soon as you’ve registered for a course or received a bill, but requests for payment submitted later than the following dates will not be accepted:

• Spring Semester: March 15
• Summer Session I and 12-week Summer Session: June 15
• Summer Session II: August 15

Twelve-week summer courses are billed and treated as Summer Session I. Note that each summer term counts as a semester.

Once your request is processed, a payment is made to your spouse's student account on the next Monday or Wednesday, whichever comes first.

When you click Submit, you’ll get a message indicating your spouse's student bursar information will be retrieved. It takes 24 hours to pull in the student account billing information (as long as the educational program has already posted your charges). At that point you can go back to your tuition record and choose the current term in your spouse's Benefits History box to see its calculated benefit. If the charges haven’t been posted to the account by the educational program, your request remains pending until the tuition system detects the charges.

Undergraduate tuition benefits for spouses are not currently considered taxable income by the government. However, graduate-level tuition benefits are considered taxable income.

Check the Tax Liability section of the Scholarship for Spouses Attending the University of Pennsylvania Policy. You may also wish to consult an accountant or contact the IRS directly.