; or (2) in the case of an independent student with dependents other than a spouse— (A) the student (and the student's spouse, if any) is a dislocated worker or has a spouse who is a dislocated worker; and (B) the sum of the adjusted gross annual income of the student and spouse (if appropriate) is less than or equal to $36,000. An individual is not required to qualify or file for the earned income credit in order to be eligible under this subsection. The Secretary shall annually adjust the income level necessary to qualify an applicant for the zero expected family contribution. The income level shall be adjusted according to increases in the Consumer Price Index, as defined in section 478(f). (d) Dislocated worker In this section, the term dislocated worker has the meaning given the term in section 3 of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. . 4. FAFSA simplification (a) FAFSA simplification Section 483(f) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 ( 20 U.S.C. 1090(f) ) is amended to read as follows: (f) Reduction of income and asset information To determine eligibility for student financial aid (1) Use of Internal Revenue Service data retrieval tool to populate FAFSA The Secretary shall— (A) make every effort to make available and allow applicants to utilize the data retrieval tool that is in existence on the date of enactment of the Simplifying Financial Aid for Students Act of 2018 to transfer data available from the Internal Revenue Service to reduce the amount of original data entry by applicants and strengthen the reliability of data used to calculate expected family contributions, including through the use of technology to— (i) allow an applicant to automatically populate the electronic version of the forms under this section with data available from the Internal Revenue Service; (ii) direct an applicant to appropriate questions on such forms based on the applicant’s answers to previous questions