Based on the data, there has only been a 24.24% increase in the monthly cap since 2002. Notably, working student income and necessary expenses have gone up since then. Tuition and required fee has gone up immensely since then as well, going from roughly $8,000 to $13,600 according to the NCES. With a considerably low exclusion change, students thus have to report more income, leading to a greater loss of benefits with bigger impact nowadays considering inflation. In other words, the cap change is not reflective of current economic changes.