What is different when you are not coming straight from school.
Whether you are treated as a dependent or an independent student changes whose financial information the form asks about, and it is defined by specific criteria rather than by whether anyone supports you. Age, marital status, dependants and several other conditions come into it.
The criteria are published and are worth reading before you assume which applies to you, because it changes what you need to gather.
There are limits on how long certain kinds of federal aid can be received, and previous enrolment counts toward them even where no qualification was completed. There are also requirements about academic progress.
If you have studied before, ask the aid office how your record is counted before you plan around a particular package.
Where an employer contributes, the terms vary: what is covered, when it is paid, whether it is taxed, and what happens if you leave. Those terms often matter more than the amount.
Get them in writing, and check how the support interacts with other aid before assuming the two simply add together.
Studying part-time changes cost, timeline and in many cases aid eligibility, since some programmes require a minimum enrolment. It is a reasonable choice, and it is one to make with the consequences visible.
Ask what the minimum enrolment is for each part of your package before you drop below full-time.
Send it over. A person reads every message, and if the real answer belongs to your school's aid office we will say so.