The University is receiving only a slight increase in work-study aid to students announced by the federal government today because Harvard's request form was submitted one business day late last October.

Seamus P. Malin '62. director of financial aid, said yesterday he decided to submit Harvard's application late "rather than submit an application that contained some obvious errors."

Malin collects financial aid estimates from the College and the ten graduate schools each year, compiling them to write a single request for grants from the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Radcliffe College submits its applications to HEW separately.

HEW will give $811,794 to Harvard in grants to exceptionally needy students, low-interest loans and the College Work-Study Program for 1975-76, Malin said yesterday. The total for the three programs was $719,244 for this fiscal year.

Work-study funding rose only $7555 to $287,741, although Harvard intended to ask HEW for $1.5 million. Last year Harvard requested $1 million, Malin said.

Hoped for Increase

Malin said he had hoped for about a $56,000 increase in HEW work-study funds, but the delay in filing Harvard's application caused HEW to ignore the University's request for an increase.

Radcliffe will receive $287.083 for the three HEW programs next year, Sylvia J. Simmons, director of Radcliffe financial aid, said yesterday.

Radcliffe received $227,201 this year, she said, adding that her application for an increase in fudning was submitted "on time."

Colleges are consistently granted far less than they request. Theodore Jones, program officer for the HEW's Office of Education in Boston, said yesterday.

Each college's application is reviewed by a panel of HEW officials and some local financial aid officers, and a "panel-approved" figure is then quoted to the college.

If the college does not appeal the panel's figure, the figure is made part of a request to HEW in Washington for all of Massachusetts.

Malin said he could not submit an application free from error by the October 18 deadline, because some of the graduate schools' financial aid officers submitted their requests to him after the October 15 deadline he had set for them.

"I did not make enough allowance for possible errors," Malin said yesterday.

On October 18, Malin said, he was checking the completed application and found some "mathematical discrepancies."