Let’s take a moment to focus on some good news for a change. The VA reported that as of February 1, 2010 the number of pending Ch. 33 Post-​​9/​11 GI Bill claims dropped by about 14% from 35K  on January 25 to 30K last week.

While this is not good news for the 30K students who are still waiting, it is a positive sign that VA appears to be making headway.

The downside — there is always a downside — it appears the total number of pending claims for ALL GI Bill programs has increased slightly from 179.5K to 179.7K. One would guess this means pending claims for the MGIB, REAP, and VR&E claims have increased over the same period.

In a recent Virginia Pilot article, Representative Nye, D-​​2nd District VA, stepped into the battle to improve GI Bill Post-​​911 GI Bill processing. Welcome to the fight.

Unfortunately Representative Nye may be sold a bill of goods by the VA who continues to point the finger to avoid blame for last fall’s fiasco. And, based on the article, it appears the war of words has reached a new level as now students and schools are both being blamed.

The report quotes a Navy official, “hundreds of Navy personnel are still awaiting stipends from the fall. In 90 percent of the cases the problem is that the applicant has not filled out a form properly or a school has not certified the applicant’s enrollment.”

With all due respect, I have two issues with the premise. First – Active Duty Navy personnel are not eligible for stipends, so the reference must be to members of the Navy Reserve. Second — schools are seldom the issue. One call to the 1–888-GIBILL-1 VA call center or a look at the VAONCE certification process, not to mention VA’s enrollment back-​​log and you will see where the blame belongs.

According to the same Navy official, college officials should “go online to study all of the tools the VA has given you to make this work better.” Again with all due respect, even the VA phone center representatives are confused, how can anyone expect the schools to do any better.

I for one find those remarks very condescending and way off base.

Consider the following: If VA enrollment forms were easier to understand; the VA spoke in one voice; the VAONCE certification system worked as advertised; and the VA was given the proper technical resources it needed, before they launched the Post-​​911 GI Bill, we would be talking about how great the benefits are and how they impact veterans lives for the better.

Read the full article.

- Terry Howell

In trying to explain the reasons for continued delays and help avoid future delays in delivering Post-​​9/​11 GI Bill benefits, the Department of Veterans Affairs continually implies that schools are partially to blame for GI Bill benefit delays. The VA does this while doing their best to avoid putting the blame where it really belongs – on those who rushed through a program that was high on promises and low deliverability — Congress. In doing so the VA keeps alienating the one group that can help them the most – school certifying officials.

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On Saturday Jan. 23, VA posted the following letter on their website. Although the letter is light on details, one thing is clear, those of us who received the “cash advance” on our GI Bill payments will soon begin paying VA back as the VA begins “recovering” the advance payments.

The letter is posted here in its entirety.

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On January 14, VA Secretary Shinseki sent a letter to each of the state veteran’s affairs directors explaining the current state of the Post-​​9/​11 GI Bill program. The letter tells of the VA’s tireless efforts to meet the demands placed on them by the exceptional number of applications for benefits and requests for information.

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In a letter written on January 14, the Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Eric Shinseki, announced the VA will pay all outstanding Post-​​9/​11 GI Bill claims by February 1. If they are able to meet this goal, thousands of veterans, and their schools, will finally begin receiving the long overdue payments. Some veterans have been waiting for payments since August of last year.

Note: This deadline covers claims received before January 19. Claims posted after that date will be paid “at the earliest opportunity.”

In addition to a full-​​on blitz to catch up on the current backlog of claims, the VA has produced two guides to help veterans prepare for enrollment in the Spring Semester. The first publication is a two-​​step checklist designed to guide veterans using any GI Bill program through the process of enrolling in the appropriate GI Bill program. The second publication is tri-​​fold “hip pocket guide” containing tips and reminders to help inform vets and reduce the number of GI Bill related questions they may have.

Visit the VA website to download your copies.

By Terry Howell

The DoD released the 2010 Basic Allowance for Housing charts on December 15. This is potentially big news for veterans using the Post-​​9/​11 GI Bill because the living stipend (aka housing stipend) is directly tied to the BAH for an E-​​5 with dependents. Although some  may see their GI Bill Living stipend increase by as much as 13.6 percent in 2010, the average increase will be more like  2.5 percent. Some veterans may see no increase or a possible decrease in their stipend because the rates for 43 percent of the military housing areas covered by BAH will actually drop in 2010. 

Read the full article explaining the 2010 BAH rate changes.

When asked when veterans could expect to see a change to their housing stipend, a VA representative stated, “In order to maintain continuity of service, BAH rates will remain the same to begin the spring semester.  Any recalculations that may occur will not happen until later in the spring.”

However, the question of how the VA will address cases where the local BAH has dropped remains unanswered.

There is a chance the VA will follow the DoD policy in such cases. The DoD has a grandfathering policy (individual rate protection) that prevents the decrease of a BAH rate as long as the servicemembers status remains unchanged. In the case of a veteran student this should mean that a current student will not see a decrease in their living stipend. Only new students or those changing their status would see the lower rate.

As always, with the Post-​​9/​11 GI Bill, there are more questions than answers.

According to most recent reports thousands of veteran students are still feeling the economic impact from delayed Post-​​9/​11 GI Bill payments. The delayed benefit payments are affecting veteran’s ability to pay their rent and buy food, books, and other essentials. In addition, the delayed benefit means that the colleges and universities are also not being paid.  It appears that despite the known issues with GI Bill payment delays some some schools are placing veterans on academic hold until the VA pays the tuition bill.

Note: Academic hold normally means students are not able to receive grades or register for the next semester until their bills are paid. This compounds an already stressful situation.

Thankfully, many veteran friendly colleges and universities are doing what they can to help veterans by setting up loan programs or deferring tuition charges on a case-​​by-​​case basis. In addition, a few schools have made it an official policy to defer tuition charges for all veterans using their GI Bill benefits. One such school, the University of Phoenix, announced their 60-​​day deferment policy in August right after the Post-​​9/​11 GI Bill went into effect.

If you are thinking about starting school anytime soon, be sure to ask your school official if the school has a policy in place to help defer your tuition cost until the GI Bill kicks in.

By Terry Howell

The video embedded here tells about the Student Veterans of America (SVA) an organization which is helping vets adjust to campus life.

The SVA is a great organization and I encourage all veteran students to check it out. If your school doesn’t have a chapter on campus you can contact SVA by e-​​mail at: contact@​studentveterans.​org or visit their website to learn how to get a chapter started at your school.

The following letter was sent to school certifying officials today. The VA is trying to get the word out about the availability of emergency payments. I am sure I am not alone in wondering what if anything will be done about the vets who already took the $3000 emergency payment and are still waiting for the actual payments to kick in.

To All VA School Certifying Officials:

VA Education Service recently requested that the attached message be submitted to the appropriate official/​office at your institution for immediate publication in the school or student newspaper and website. We also requested that the message be forwarded to any of the institution’s associated veteran groups and service organizations.

Please respond to us if you were successful in having this message distributed on campus, and tell us the forum in which it was distributed by COB November 25, 2009.

The attached message reads:

Are you waiting for your VA Education Benefits?
The Department of Veterans Affairs has made funds available for Veteran students who are still awaiting their education benefit claim to be processed. Eligible veterans can receive up to a $3000 advance, which will be recouped from future benefit payments. If you are a student who applied for one of VA’s education programs and have not yet received your monthly benefit payment for the Fall 2009 term, you can request a one-​​time advance payment at your local VA Regional Office or through VA’s website, www​.va​.gov.

Do they have this letter ready to go for next semester also?