Education: Montgomery GI Bill — Active Duty - Military Education & G.I. Bill Information - Military Times

Education: Montgomery GI Bill — Active Duty

Although attention is on the Post-9/11 GI Bill, the 24-year-old Montgomery GI Bill remains in effect and for some people may offer better benefits.

The current maximum payment under the Montgomery GI Bill is $1,368.

There are some big differences between the new and old GI Bill programs, beginning with the fact that service members must pay an enrollment fee of $1,200, made in forfeitures of basic pay of $100 a month for the first year of service.

Until now, the $1,200 enrollment fee has been refundable only if a service member died while on active duty or within a year of leaving active duty without having used any GI Bill benefits. In such cases, the fee was returned without interest to the next of kin.

Refunds of the $1,200 are available to some people who paid for Montgomery GI Bill benefits but end up using the new program instead. For anyone who uses all 36 months of Post-9/11 GI Bill payments, the final living stipend will include an extra $1,200, representing a refund without interest for the Montgomery GI Bill enrollment fee. Refunds will not be available to anyone who does not use the full 36 months of benefits.

In most cases, the Post-9/11 GI Bill is more generous than the Montgomery GI Bill, but there are reasons to use the older program. In cases where college tuition is very low or free and housing costs are low, the Montgomery GI Bill — which pays the service member or veteran rather than the school — might result in a bigger payment.

The Montgomery GI Bill also pays for some education that is not covered by the Post-9/11 GI Bill, including apprenticeships and on-the-job training, flight training and correspondence classes.

Eligibility to use Montgomery GI Bill benefits expires 10 years from the date of separation, five years less than under the Post-9/11 GI Bill.

Some service members who were covered by the Vietnam-era GI Bill may receive Montgomery GI Bill-Active Duty benefits. To determine eligibility, members should submit all DD214s with VA Form 22-1990 to the Veterans Affairs Department.

Contact: www.gibill.va.gov

MONTGOMERY GI BILL— SELECTED RESERVE

Reservists now can receive $333 per month as full-time students, and must have made at least a six-year commitment to the Selected Reserve, signed after June 30, 1985, and otherwise fulfill their service requirements.

In some cases, the Selected Reserve GI Bill can be used before or after Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits, but never at the same time. An example, VA officials said, is that someone could use the Post-9/11 GI bill to get an electrical engineering degree at a two-year community college and then enroll in an apprenticeship program using the Montgomery GI Bill-Selected Reserve.

Contact: www.gibill.va.gov