Who’s to Blame for Post-9/11 GI Bill Benefit Delays?
August 24, 2009
By Terry Howell
Last week’s Blog covered news reports warning that a huge backlog of GI Bill “work items,” which includes applications and payment claims, is causing a delay in Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits of up to 10 weeks. This week the backlog grew nearly 11 percent to over 234,000. To their credit, the VA has processed over 140,000 “work items” overall. In addition, it appears that at least 13,000 veterans will soon begin receiving benefits, if they have not already.
Note: It takes approximately 1.5 hours for VA to process each Chapter 33 Post-9/11 GI Bill application.
In a recent Chronicle of Higher Education article, Post-9/11 GI Bill Applicants Wait for Colleges to Certify Enrollment, Department of Veterans Affairs Director of Education Services, Keith Wilson, responded to the question about delays by suggesting that school certifying officials were to blame, saying that to date the VA had received only 13,000 certifications from the schools. “We have no control over when a school official will submit that enrollment certificate to us,” added Mr. Wilson.
Needless to say this has triggered an angry response from veteran’s program administrators and school certifying officials nationwide, denying that they are the bottleneck in the process.
Many of the certifying officials interviewed, said they were shocked to read the article and felt they were being stabbed in the back. A school certifying official, who wished to remain unnamed, said “the quote that stressed me is the one where he said they had no control over when a school sent an enrollment in. We have it in writing that we were to hold certifications until July 7, 2009.”
Another certifying official pointed out that there is no logical reason for a school to purposely delay the process, “not only is it bad for the student; it is bad for the school.” He also questioned the legitimacy of Mr. Wilson’s claim of receiving only 13,000 certifications.
Teri Gravenmier, veterans program administrator for the University of Alaska Anchorage, addressed Mr. Wilson’s assertion by explaining that in addition to other duties – including providing counseling and support for veteran students – “school certifying officials must verify not only that the student is qualified and how many credits they are registered for, but also that the coursework applies to their degree plan.” By comparison, “VA processors have one task to perform — process Chapter 33 [Post-9/11 GI Bill] applications,” Gravenmier points out.
Since early August, school certifying officials have been reporting serious payment errors made by the VA, including underpayments made because the VA failed to update their own database when the rates increased in August, duplicate tuition and fees payments, payments sent to the wrong schools, and payments made without supporting data including the student names. School officials have been told by the VA that they would not make any corrections to the payment issues until “Phase 3,” slated begin sometime in October.
Many of these errors and delays are easily attributed to a newly hired, inexperienced VA workforce, an understandable learning curve, lack of technical support systems, complicated requirements, and a huge flood of claims. But, many find it unfair for the VA to blame the schools for delays while they continue to have issues that still need to be addressed at the VA level.
Please consider sending a similar letter to your representatives.
God Bless All Veterans!
I am writing you on a subject that is very dear to my heart one because it not only affects me directly but because it affects thousands if not hundreds of thousands of veterans that served honorably in the many months since 9/11. The many promises to help veterans with education expenses still allow for many more to fall through the cracks.
The Montgomery GI Bill (chapter 30) is what I enrolled in. It is still available to anyone who pays into it, of which I paid the $1,200 enrollment fees and the $600 kicker for a total of $1,800 of which I still think was a good investment. I still have over 30 months of unused benefits, I would be ever grateful to be able to transfer them to my children.
The new Post 9/11 GI Bill (chapter 33) is now an option for active duty service members. I can enroll in the new Post 9/11 GI bill but I cannot transfer my benefits to my children, because I separated prior to 1 August 2009. I as many thousands of my fellow veterans that cannot afford to send our child to higher education saw this as a glimmer of hope. Only to see that glimmer snuffed out by a decision that has cut deep into our souls. Many thousands of honorably veterans as well as I would greatly appreciate the opportunity to transfer these benefits that we paid for to our children to give them an opportunity that we never had.
I as well as thousands of other veterans served all the requirements but the one that states we must be on active duty on or after 1 August 2009 in order to share these benefits with our children or spouse. This GI Bill is called “Post 9/11” not “Post 8/1/2009”, this is what it amounts too.
I retired 1 November, 2007 after 23 years and 4 months honorable active duty This was six years beyond the 9/11 act of terror. After 9/11 I was deployed and served in the Gulf Theatre from February 2002 to June of 2002 in support Enduring Freedom.
Today all someone has to do to be eligible to transfer these benefits is to server honorably for 4 years. They do not have to deploy, they do not have to serve more than one tour of duty, or pay into the program.
What I am asking is to grandfather the veterans that served the required time in service after 9/11 be allow the transfer the benefits to their children. This would not cost the government a penny more than if the veteran had used the benefit themselves. This act would give thousands of veterans a piece of mind that their children have the same opportunities of all veterans.
Very Respectfully,
Patrick
Posted by patrick | on August 24th, 2009