GI-Bill
A GI-Bill reminder from VA
Mar 25th
Hello, 
Hope you’re having a great afternoon. I wanted to get in touch today to remind you of the benefits of The Post-9/11 GI Bill, and invite you to help spread the word to your readers.
As a military veteran, it’s imperative that you play a proactive role to ensure the educational benefits you, your friends or family have earned are in fact received. The Post-9/11 GI Bill offers terrific benefits, but they are not automatic. The actions taken today will simplify the process and help the VA expedite benefit payments.
I’m contacting you today on behalf of The United States Department of Veterans Affairs to stress the importance of completing all of the necessary steps to ensure the benefits deserved will be paid in a timely fashion! Here’s what needs to be done:
Check your eligibility online at www.gibill.va.gov Submit your application VA Form 22-1990 or 22-1990E.
After you have enrolled in school, check with your School Certifying Official (SCO) to confirm that your VA enrollment certification has been sent to the VA on your behalf. This form certifies your actual enrollment period and triggers your payment. *Here’s a little hint:
the school’s designated SCO will be found in the Financial Aid Department, Admissions and Records Department, or Registrar’s
Office.)
And last but not least, enjoy the education benefits you earned!
If you or a loved one is planning to use the Post-9/11 GI Bill to attend school anytime this year, action must be taken today. Please let me know if you would be interested in working together to ensure your readers are securing the benefits they are eligible for. For more information please visit: http://www.gibill.va.gov or text GIBill to 99702. And thank you for your service to our country.
All the very best,
Diana
Popularity: 33% [?]
Nye: $750 a Month is Too Much, Too Fast
Feb 22nd
Washington, DC – Congressman Glenn Nye (VA-02) is asking the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to
ease the burden on local veterans.
Last week, the VA announced that it will ask veterans who received $3,000 emergency payments under the Post 9/11 GI Bill to begin repaying the money – at a rate of up to $750 per month. The emergency payments were issued last year to veterans whose tuition benefits from the Post 9/11 GI Bill were delayed due to processing backlogs at the VA.
On Monday, Nye sent a letter to Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki, asking the VA to reduce the repayment rate from $750 per month to a rate of no more than 20% of each veteran’s monthly living stipend. For veterans receiving the lowest living stipend, this would mean a repayment amount of $132 per month.
“Asking our veterans to repay $750 a month is too much, too fast, especially when many veterans are struggling to get back on their feet after their benefit payments were delayed last fall,” said Congressman Glenn Nye. “The idea of this program is to help our veterans get ahead, not to bury them in debt and paperwork. The VA should implement a realistic repayment plan that eases the burden on our veterans so they can focus on getting a college education.”
When the Post 9/11 GI Bill program went into effect last fall, many veterans found that their tuition and living benefits were delayed for weeks or months due to extended processing backlogs. After students were forced to take out personal loans or run up credit card debt in order to pay bills while waiting for their benefit checks, the VA issued one-time, emergency payments of $3,000 to help veterans make ends meet.
These emergency payments were an advance against future benefits – not an additional bonus – and they must eventually be recouped by the VA. In mid-February, the VA announced on its web site that it would begin deducting $750 from veterans’ monthly benefit payments.
Popularity: 53% [?]
VA Reaching Out to Students and Schools to Speed Benefit Payments
Jan 20th
Just Recieved from VA–WASHINGTON In a coordinated effort to speed up the
processing of Post 9/11 GI Bill education benefits this spring, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced today that it has been reaching out to student Veterans, servicemembers, university officials and other partners to meet its commitment to an aggressive processing goal by Feb. 1, 2010. Feb. 1 is the first date spring payments are due and presently VA has processed over 72,000 of the approximately 103,000 spring enrollments received. Since inception of the historic new program last year, VA has paid over $1.3 billion in benefits to more than 170,000 students.
“Only by VA and all of our partners working together will students be better served,” said VA’s Acting Under Secretary for Benefits Mike Walcoff. “We are making a concerted effort to reach out to everyone to provide the timely benefits that those who served our nation deserve.”
Walcoff said there are “shared responsibilities” between VA, universities and the students to ensure the success of processing the education benefits on time.”
VA has sent letters to university presidents and school certifying officials, state Veterans affairs directors, and notified Veteran service organizations, congressional members and other education stakeholders highlighting VA’s emphasis on the importance of timely submission of school enrollment information.
VA also released a “Hip Pocket” guide and checklist, with helpful tips to assist Veterans in the application process. The guide and checklist can be found on college campuses and VA’s GI Bill Web site, www.gibill.va.gov.
VA is working to provide timely payments to all eligible Veterans to ensure that students are spared the financial hardships which some faced during the fall 2009 term.
To help address the high volume of claims received for the new Post-9/11 GI Bill, VA hired 530 employees, bringing the total number of education claims processors to 1,200. Employees have been working mandatory overtime since August 2009. Additionally, the department awarded a temporary contract to assist with education claims processing.
Veterans, servicemembers, reservists, and members of the National Guard who served on active duty since September 11, 2001 are potentially eligible for the new Post-9/11 GI Bill. It provides payments for tuition and fees, as well as a housing allowance and stipend for books and supplies for many participants.
Under the new GI Bill, some members of the armed forces may transfer benefits to a spouse or dependent children.
Information about the Post-9/11 GI Bill, as well as VA’s other educational benefit programs, is available at VA’s Web site, www.gibill.va.gov, or by calling 1-888-GIBILL-1 (or 1-888-442-4551).
Popularity: 15% [?]
Taking the Bullet: Student Veterans’ BAH Payments
Jan 15th
By: Joshua Lawton-Belous
As student veterans head back to college many are feeling a financial pinch. The promises made by the Veterans Administration and many politicians have not come to pass. The Post 9/11 G.I. Bill BAH payments are still a mess, leaving many student veterans scrambling to find jobs, in a recession, in order to get by. How close is the Veterans Administration to fixing this mess? They processed today 7,344 applications. But how many more applications are left to process? The Veterans Administration has not released those numbers, nor do they provide them on their website.
Yet the problem with the current V.A. system is that the number of applications processed has not risen significantly enough to relieve the deluge of applications which have come in the Spring semester. While the verification process should be shorter for those who have already been processed for the Fall semester, the same two step process for both paying BAH payments and tuition is the same. Failing the introduction of a fail safe automated verification system, or the massive hiring and training of verifying officials, it is not foreseeable that student veterans will be able to rely on receiving their BAH checks.
Unfortunately many student veterans may be left in an academic purgatory by the lack of action on the part of the Veterans Administration. Schools with some of the largest student veteran populations in Virginia have not yet received tuition payments. Fortunately for student veterans attending George Mason University a policy has been set in place, allowing student veterans to register and graduate even if payment has not been made by the V.A. for their tuition. Yet only several miles away from George Mason University, student veterans at Northern Virginia Community College, are being prevented from registering due to absent V.A. tuition payments. This prevention by Northern Virginia Community College does not only prevent student veterans from enrolling in the Spring semester, but also from receiving BAH payments from the V.A. for the Spring semester.
While the focus of the V.A. and student veterans has been on BAH payments, the V.A. also needs to consider how much debt a college can take on before it becomes financially infeasible for the college to accept the current tuition payment situation. Like most institutions, colleges are facing budget cuts. These budget cuts are made worse by debt accrued on behalf of taking care of student veterans. The inability of the V.A. to pay tuition in a timely manner, may result in those universities which have generous tuition matchups under the Yellow Ribbon Program to either decrease the matchup amount or pull out of the Yellow Ribbon Program altogether.
If both the BAH and the tuition payment debacle can not be fixed at the same time, the Veterans Administration needs to concentrate on fixing one problem at a time. As cruel as it may sound to student veterans, the Veterans Administration needs to concentrate on fixing their tuition payment system. While this will take money out of the pockets of student veterans initially, the majority of student veterans would pay more in tuition payments than they would receive in BAH payments.
What should happen is not necessarily will happen. Unfortunately in either scenario student veterans are taking the bullet. But by fixing first the tuition payments and then the BAH payments, rather than trying to fix both at the same time, student veterans’ dreams of going to college will have a fighting chance.
Popularity: 39% [?]
GI Bill backlog climbs as new semester looms
Jan 7th
By Rick Maze – Military Times
With the latest numbers showing a still-rising backlog for Post-9/11 GI Bill claims, a key lawmaker says he doesn’t think the Veterans Affairs Department is ready for a flood of new claims for the spring semester.
Rep. Harry Mitchell, D-Ariz., chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee’s oversight and investigations panel, said he is “disappointed” with VA’s performance in the fall semester, which left 26,000 people still waiting for benefits when classes ended.
VA officials said most of those 26,000 veterans have now been paid. But VA’s Jan. 4 report on pending benefits claims shows that more than 48,000 Post-9/11 GI Bill claims are still being processed. Some of those could be for the spring semester.
“With a second semester only weeks away, I believe the situation remains unacceptable,” Mitchell said in a letter to VA, in which he noted he continues to get complaints about long waits.
“The confusion and uncertainty about when checks will arrive, coupled with the need to meet immediate expenses, is adding stress to veterans at a time when many are already struggling with [post-traumatic stress disorder],” Mitchell said.
Popularity: 11% [?]
Deadline rapidly approaching for Post-9/11 transfer option
Dec 17th
By MC2 Alexis R. Brown
Wednesday, 16 December 2009 00:00
Members of the armed forces wishing to use their military education benefits to provide financial assistance for their spouse or dependent(s) have little time to elect that option.
The last day to transfer educational entitlements under the Defense Department’s Post-9/11 G.I. Bill is Dec. 31. This deadline applies to Sailors who are in need of an exception to the reenlistment policy. This exception allows for short term extensions to be used to satisfy the required service obligation. Beginning Jan. 1, 2010, all enlisted servicemembers who wish to transfer entitlement to a family member must reenlist for the time required to meet the service obligation, in accordance with current reenlistment policy and procedures.
Under the new bill, which took effect Aug. 1, service members with at least six years on active duty or in the selected reserves are entitled to transfer all or the remaining of their educational benefits to a spouse or dependent.
Senior Chief Navy Career Counselor (SW) Veronica Holliday, Navy Region Southwest retention advisor said that service members who are interested in transferring their benefits need to take proper steps to do so.
“The active-duty service member must ensure their family member is enrolled in DEERS (Defense Eligibility Enrollment Reporting System and is eligible for benefits, at the time of transfer to receive educational benefits.”
The option could possibly lift a huge financial load for a service member paying their child’s college tuition, Holliday added. “The same would be true for a spouse benefiting from the paid tuition.”
Additional guidelines are outlined in NAVADMIN 203/09. The message states that a service member must:
* –Agree to serve four additional years in the armed forces from the date of election; or
* –Must have served at least 10 years in the armed forces and if either Navy, DoD policy. Or federal statute restricts the member from committing to four additional years; members must agree to serve the maximum amount of time allowed by that policy or statute.
If a member becomes retirement eligible during the period of Aug. 1, 2009 thru Aug. 1, 2012, he must agree to serve the additional period below:
* –For those eligible for retirement between now and Aug. 1, 2010, a one-year obligation is required.
* –For those eligible for retirement on or after Aug. 1, 2010 and before Aug. 1, 2011, a two-year obligation is required.
Service members with an approved retirement date prior to July 1, 2010, do not need to obligate any additional service.
Holliday added that once a service member has elected to transfer their entitlements, it cannot be reversed. “However, certain changes between designated family members can be made, such as changing the months of benefits.”
Service members who have been discharged or retired from the armed forces prior to Aug. 1 are not eligible for the option.
To make the education transfer, visit https://www.dmdc.osd.mil/TEB/. Currently, you must use an Internet Explorer browser to access the site.
For additional details and if the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill is your best option, log onto http://wwwgibill.va.gov.
NOTE: The information on deadline requirements has been updated as of 11:15 a.m. PST.
Popularity: 15% [?]
Old technology still blocks some GI Bill payments
Dec 7th
Amanda Collier started college in August armed with a certificate of eligibility to use Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits that her dad, a Coast Guardsman of 22 years, had earned and transferred to her.
Next week, Collier will take final exams for her first semester at the University of Central Oklahoma. But neither she nor the university has received any GI Bill money to cover her tuition, housing or other costs.
The missing payments “made the semester a lot more complicated than it should have been,” Collier said last week. “Usually the first semester is hardest because you’re trying to figure out everything. Having money complications made it a lot more stressful.”
Collier is among an unknown number of Post-9/11 GI Bill users still victimized by computer software at the Department of Veterans Affairs, which left VA staff unable to process two categories of claims. These cases simply were set aside to await a software upgrade. Affected students and schools, it appears, never even got a letter to explain why payments were frozen.
What might be called a “black hole” for some GI Bill claims hit students whose Post-9/11 GI Bill award levels needed adjusting after the semester began. But it also affected students who had changed campuses or schools, and therefore created “overlapping terms” the old GI Bill software couldn’t handle, said Keith Wilson, director of VA’s education service.
Collier’s situation was made more stressful because, as a dependent using transferred benefits, she was ineligible for the $3,000 lump-sum emergency payment VA officials began to make in early October to relieve financial stress on thousands of students whose new GI Bill payments were delayed by various start-up challenges.
“We don’t have the mechanism for them to apply for that,” Wilson said. The lump-sum payments, he said, had to be made available quickly. VA computers held data only on veterans, to validate eligibility and track payments, and not on dependents.
“Once you start needing to rely on information removed from veterans’ status, it becomes infinitely more complex,” he said.
Read the rest of this entry »
Popularity: 15% [?]
More delays possible in GI Bill payments
Oct 28th
By Rick Maze–Military Times–
Up to 14,000 students may not receive living stipends Nov. 1 as the Veterans Affairs Department continues to dig out of a backlog of claims for the Post-9/11 GI Bill — but there will be no more emergency payments for those who don’t get paid on time.
VA officials said Tuesday they have about 14,000 enrollment certifications pending final approval for tuition, book allowance and living stipends. The certifications are the final step for an eligible veteran enrolled in school to receive benefits.
“It is possible, if we have not worked their case by the end of the month, that some may not receive their housing payment on the first,” VA officials said in a statement, referring to Nov. 1.
Payments not made Nov. 1 will be made to the student as soon as final approval is given so they do not have to wait until Dec. 1 to receive a living stipend, VA officials said.
Popularity: 8% [?]
VA Contacting Veteran-Students about New GI Bill
Oct 20th
Calls Part of Systematic Outreach to Improve Service
WASHINGTON — Representatives of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will be telephoning Veterans across the country to explain their education benefits under the new Post-911 GI Bill and ensure beneficiaries are able to receive payments due them.
“The Post-9/11 GI Bill is one of our highest priorities,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. “Instead of making people wait to hear from us, we’re reaching out to Veterans, so they can get the money they need to stay in school.”
The Department is conducting this telephone outreach in response to the large numbers of Veterans who have applied for education benefits for the fall 2009 semester. The calls are scheduled to go to Veterans who have applied for benefits under the new educational assistance program. Those who registered for advanced payments will be called, too, in ensure they received their benefits.
To protect the personal identity of Veterans, VA representatives making calls will not ask for any personal information, such as birthdates, bank account or social security numbers, but they may ask family members for information to contact Veterans who are away at school.
“Our procedures and policies to provide advanced payments remain in effect,” Shinseki said. “Meanwhile, we’re completing the on-time development of our automated processing system that will ensure timely delivery of checks in the future.”
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Popularity: 10% [?]
Breaking News–VA to Conduct Outreach to Recipients of Post-9/11 GI Bill
Oct 9th
VA has requested The Virginia Veteran reach out to our readers with the following information. 
From Saturday October 10 through Sunday October 11, 2009, the Department of Veterans Affairs will be conducting outreach to Veterans who have applied for or received Certificates of Eligibility entitling them to use the new Post-9/11 GI Bill education benefits program.
If you fall into this category, you may be contacted by phone this weekend by a representative of VA asking you how you plan to use your GI Bill benefits and how VA can assist in fulfilling your educational plans.
Your feedback is important to VA as the Department works to improve delivery of educational benefits to you and all other Veterans now and in the future.
VA–Sent this update just as we posted the prior info.
Weekend Calls to Improve Service
WASHINGTON – On October 10 and 11, representatives of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will be telephoning Veterans across the country to gauge their experiences with the educational benefits of the new Post-9/11 GI Bill.
The Department is conducting this outreach to prepare for large numbers of new Veterans who are expected to apply for these benefits in the future. The calls are scheduled to go to Veterans who have applied for benefits under the new educational assistance program.
VA officials hope Veterans receiving the calls can spend the few minutes to help give VA the information it needs to improve services for future Veteran-students.
The VA officials making the calls will not ask for any personal information, such as bank account or social security numbers, but they may ask family members for information to contact Veterans who are away at school.
Popularity: 18% [?]
