Not everyone is facing GI Bill delays

[CommunityEditor]

The Veterans Affairs Department is thanking colleges and universities for being patient about waiting for tuition payments for people using the Post-9/11 GI Bill, warning that it could take another six to eight weeks to completely catch up.

In the meantime, schools and veterans will continue to wait on their payments.

“I realize the learning curve has been steep for us all, and assure you we continue to work to make the process smoother and quicker,” VA Undersecretary Patrick Dunne, a retired Navy rear admiral, said in a letter sent out Sept. 11. “Thank you for your understanding and you support of our nation’s veterans.”

The new education benefits program, in which tuition and fee payments go directly to institutions of higher learning while allowances for books and living expenses go directly to students, took effect Aug. 1. About 260,000 students have applied for payments, but tuition payments have been made for only about 12,000 eligible beneficiaries, while about 8,000 have received living stipends.

Dunne’s letter said a complicated two-step approval process is causing the delay. The process involves first certifying eligibility and then enrollment.

“Claims processing times traditionally spike temporarily during September and October with fall enrollment, and we expect our processing time to reduce after the initial surge,” he said. “Although we anticipate claims processing times to gradually increase, we are requesting that you continue to submit enrollment certifications in a timely manner.”

Dunne assured school officials that full payments will be made, with the expectation that Oct. 1 payments for most veterans will include living expenses for August and September.

GI Bill users and veterans groups have their doubts that living expenses will be paid by then.

Army officer Allen Kiefer, who asked that his rank and unit not be used, is one of those frustrated by delays. Kiefer, who has an undergraduate and two master’s degrees, didn’t need the Post-9/11 GI Bill for himself but wanted to transfer benefits to his son, a college senior.

“When I heard about this program, I knew it was going to be the best benefit I have ever gotten in the Army. I still believe that, but I sure would like to be paid,” said Kiefer.

He said he was among the first to apply to transfer benefits in a process that started four months ago, and he has no idea when his son’s college will get paid.

“If you call the VA’s GI Bill help line, their pre-recorded message states that there is a 6- to 8-week wait for processing due to the unprecedented volume of applications. When I finally reached a person at VA, I was told the processing of my son’s application for benefits will not be completed by VA until the end of September,” he said.

“The real question is, ‘Are the veterans satisfied with the VA’s processing?’ I say no,” Kiefer said.

Isaac Pacheco, an Iraq war veteran who works for a major veterans service organization, AmVets, and is using the GI Bill to attend graduate school, said pleading for schools to have patience doesn’t resolve all the problems facing veterans as a result of delayed claims processing.

“I was among the first to apply,” said Pacheco, who left the Marine Corps in 2006 after an Iraq deployment. “I know my university has been paid but I have not received by book allowance and, like others, am waiting for my first living stipend. Schools may accept a late payment from the VA without a veteran being hurt, but landlords and creditors are not waiting. They want to be paid now.

“I don’t know how VA can say on one hand that it is taking 28 days to process a claim and on the other be telling everyone it will be six to eight weeks for payments,” he said. “There is either a lot of misdirection going on or VA officials don’t understand what is going on in their own department. My hope is this is classic trouble implementing a new policy and that everything will be fine soon.”


Article: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/0...elays_091509w/

[VFFSSGT]

Never would have guessed this would have happened...

[CommunityEditor]

An Alaska veteran’s plea for help in getting promised GI Bill benefits is one sign of problems facing the Veterans Affairs Department as it processes a backlog of claims for the Post-9/11 GI Bill.

“I need to consider dropping out and coming back when VA has its ducks in a row,” said Joya Myers, a former Army information management specialist working on a business degree at the University of Alaska.

Myers said she was depending on the GI Bill and a part-time job at the university to cover her costs, but the job in the information technology department dried up, and her GI Bill living stipend and book allowance are late.

“I am stressing about how I am going to make my rent for October and car payment,” Myers said. “It has become so stressful, I have wondered if this is all worth it.”

The House and Senate armed services committees are monitoring the new GI Bill program, which launched Aug. 1, after hearing from schools and veterans about payment problems.

“It seems to be taking about 32 days to process a claim and it looks like that is going to increase,” said a congressional aide who asked not to be identified.

“I think everybody has to take a deep breath,” the aide said. “Fall has always been a tough time on VA’s education service, and this year is even harder.”

Myers said her goal is to get a bachelor’s degree so she can rejoin the Army as an officer. “I must keep my credit in good standing, or my goal of becoming an officer will be greatly affected,” she said.

“My father helps when he can, and usually that keeps a roof over my head, but as far as food, car payment and other bills, I call and plead with them not to put it on my credit report,” Myers said.

Myers transferred from the university’s Fairbanks campus to Anchorage, believing a part-time job and GI Bill benefits would cover her expenses.

When she was laid off after five months, Myers said she thought she would still be OK with just the GI Bill, with its full tuition, living stipend and book allowance based on her more than three years of service.

“I scheduled my classes under the assumption I was not going to work so I could just focus on school. My classes are scheduled throughout the day, which makes it difficult to find work that will take me for a few hours here and there,” she said.

She could return to Fairbanks to the IT job, but “I could not afford to move back,” she said.

“This entire process is a headache, any way you cut it,” Myers said.

Myers said she has tried to get information from VA and the university about when she can expect to get the book allowance and living stipend, with no success.

“At my school, we cannot just see someone,” Myers said. She had to wait to see someone who gave her “a ‘they will call you’ answer,” she said.

She has e-mailed the school’s veterans advisor, but said she only gets “generic answers that I already know.”

Calling VA has not been any better, she said.

“Who do we write to when we cannot get through to VA because they have managed to make the wait time about an hour?” she said “Who do we go to when we cannot afford our school books, because we were relying on them to be paid for by the time school was in session? Who do we go to when we cannot afford to pay for gas?

“Why does VA continue making excuses?”


Article: http://www.militarytimes.com/news/20...tress_092209w/

[commonsense101]

This is exactly why my wife and I decided to stay under Chapter 30's benefits. We decided to wait until next year before we switch over. I knew this cluster&^%$ would happen. I would tell anyone that if they could wait it out before switching over then just wait.

[CommunityEditor]

Delays and complications in getting Post-9/11 GI Bill payments have led some veterans to wonder if they made a mistake in signing up for the new education program.

At Ohio State University, Jeff Kohler, a former Navy petty officer, is living off his savings while waiting for his benefits to kick in. He got a warning from the university veterans’ adviser that belt-tightening might be in order because living stipends — a key part of the new benefits plan — might not be paid until Nov. 1 because of the backlog of claims.

Kohler, an Iraq war veteran, said he might have made different plans if he had known his rent money was going to be late. “I am living off savings now and a little help from my parents,” he said.

“You got to love the VA,” Kohler said. “I go through hell in Iraq and this is the thanks I get from them.”

Kohler said he left the Navy with more than $8,000 in savings and is down to $4,500. “I’m lucky, as I can survive for a little while. I’m not sure everyone is in the same situation.”

At the Everest College branch in Arlington, Va., former Army Sgt. Stephen Wright said switching to the Post-9/11 GI Bill is proving to be a big mistake.

“I am a 4.0 student about to be kicked out of school for nonpayment and nonattendance because I now have to go to work in order to survive,” said Wright, an Iraq war veteran who is hoping to graduate next year with a business degree.

Last year, Wright attended Everest and made payments on a student loan using the Montgomery GI Bill, which gives cash payments to the student, in contrast to the Post-9/11 GI Bill, which makes tuition payments directly to schools.

He switched because the Post-9/11 GI Bill held out the promise of a bigger cash payment for living expenses and textbooks, plus full coverage of tuition and fees. But he has yet to receive a check — and he’s hurting.

The company that gave him the student loan “is not being very patient,” he said, and he has been placed on attendance probation for going to work instead of classes.

“I was promised by VA I would have my money in six weeks, and here we are now on eight weeks,” he said.

‘Sorry I switched’
Late payments are “putting veterans deeper in debt while the economy is not getting any better,” Wright said. “I am sorry I switched to the new GI Bill.”

At Columbia University in New York City, Marine veteran Jason Lemieux, who did three tours in Iraq, said delays in payments have hurt many veterans who enrolled in school and bought into VA’s promise that all their expenses would be paid.

“One guy couldn’t afford books until he got money from his ex-wife,” said Lemieux, who got out in 2006 as a sergeant. “The school has been very understanding and flexible, telling everyone not to worry about the tuition and fees. And they are setting up an emergency fund for guys who have problems covering the rent.”

At the Anchorage campus of the University of Alaska, former Army Spc. Joya Myers said she may be forced to drop out of school and postpone her goal — getting a bachelor’s degree so she can return to the Army as an officer — because of problems getting her new GI Bill payments.

“I need to consider dropping out and coming back when VA has their ducks in a row,” said Myers, who was depending on the GI Bill and a part-time job at the university’s information technology department to cover her expenses. But the job dried up, and her living stipend and book allowances are late.

“My father helps when he can and usually that keeps a roof over my head, but as far as food, car payment and other bills, I call and plead with them not to put it on my credit report,” Myers said.

“I must keep my credit in good standing, or my goal of becoming an officer will be greatly affected,” she said.

Stories like these are getting attention from veterans groups and from Congress.

Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, ranking Republican on the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, said this is not what VA promised in hearings about the Aug. 1 implementation of the new benefits program.

“I am extremely disappointed by the lingering delays veterans are experiencing in receiving their Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits, particularly after being assured by VA they would be able to handle the workload,” Burr said.

Veterans “deserve much better.”

Joe Davis, a spokesman for Veterans of Foreign Wars, noted that many schools have shown patience and understanding toward students awaiting payments from VA.

“Schools can financially afford to be more accommodating to student veterans,” Davis said. “But landlords, groceries, pharmacies, and other essential cost-of-living expenses don’t stop. VA has to do a better job of expediting claims processing and payments.”

‘We are doing everything we can,’ VA says
Mandatory overtime has been ordered for VA workers processing Post-9/11 GI Bill claims, and more people are assigned to answer a hot line for students and schools.

But with VA taking an average of 34 days to process a claim, thousands of veterans who expected to receive delayed living stipends in early October may have to wait even longer.

VA is wading through a pile of more than 70,000 claims that, on many days, does not get any smaller. The department has been processing about 2,300 to 2,500 claims a day since the Aug. 1 launch of the new veterans benefit — a slow and tedious process, considering more than 277,000 claims have come in.

Not all of those claims are for immediate benefits payments; some are applications to be certified as eligible to use benefits at a later date.

Colleges and universities appear willing to wait while payment problems for current students are worked out, and VA is talking to school officials to reassure them that tuition and fee payments are coming, said Keith Wilson, director of VA’s education service.

However, Wilson acknowledged that waiting can be hard on students. Book allowances, for those who are eligible, will be paid in a check to students issued at the same time that their schools receive payment for tuition and fees.

Living stipends, supposed to be paid on the first of the month, will be paid in batches every few days starting Oct. 1 so students won’t have to wait until Nov. 1, Wilson said.

“We are doing everything we can,” Wilson said.

Veterans groups are urging VA to pull out all stops to get claims paid. Derek Blumke, executive director of Student Veterans of America, said he has “received troubling reports of our members facing the possibility of being disenrolled for late tuition payments, falling behind in class as they cannot afford books, and worst of all, dipping into hard-earned rainy-day savings to support their families.”

Wilson said he was unaware of any GI Bill applicants being barred from school for nonpayment of tuition.

In a statement, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America said it’s “absolutely unacceptable” that, by their count, only 11 percent of people who applied for GI bill benefits had received them as of mid-September.

VA officials initially predicted it would take about two weeks to process claims, and reported it was taking 28 days in August. Now, it is up to 35 days, with Wilson warning that processing time may get even longer as the flood of applications for the fall term continues.

“This lengthy and unpredictable waiting period is causing widespread confusion among veterans who are wondering if their check will arrive in 15 or 90 days,” IAVA said.

What you can do
Blumke and Patrick Campbell, chief legislative counsel of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, have practical advice for students who are short of money while waiting on their GI Bill living stipends:

• Many colleges and universities offer interest-free loans to needy students or have created special loans or grants for veterans, Blumke said. If an institution doesn’t have a loan program for veterans, it might be willing to create one, he added.

• Veterans often are eligible for other financial aid programs, such as Pell Grants. “In my experience, you can get money within about two weeks,” Campbell said. An application form is available online. The financial aid offices at most schools also can help with a Pell Grant application.

Pell Grants, which do not have to be repaid, are based on income and family size. Most student veterans with income of less than $60,000 a year would qualify for some help, and those making $30,000 or less — the value of GI Bill benefits doesn’t count — could receive about $5,000 in aid.


Article: http://www.militarytimes.com/news/20...elays_092509w/

[hawk71049]

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I can not believe we are having issues still, in this area, why offer a program if you can't support it.

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[CommunityEditor]

A retired Navy chief petty officer has jumped in to defend the Veterans Affairs Department’s processing of Post-9/11 GI Bill payments, saying he received his benefits on time and without much fuss.

Kevin Ramey, a retired chief fire controlman attending Old Dominion University in Virginia, said Tuesday he applied months early for benefits and spent a lot of time making sure he was doing everything right.

“I am one of the 27,500 people who received benefits on time,” Ramey said. “A lot of pressure has been put on VA because of this program. I realize VA has an obligation to serve veterans, but to be fair, the veterans and the schools need to take some ownership as well.

“My advice to veterans is to be proactive. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. And share their experiences with fellow veterans and VA — the lessons learned this year will improve things in the future,” said Ramey, who retired from the Navy in 2008 with 20 years of service.

Ramey, attending graduate school to earn a master’s degree in public administration, said he applied as soon as VA started processing pre-enrollment claims in May and received his eligibility certificate June 30.

“This was not a delay. It was right in line with when VA said they would start sending out results,” he said.

Ramey said he picked a school after verifying it would be covered by GI Bill benefits and determining how many credits he would need to qualify for the monthly living stipend, which is paid only to whose who are attending more than half-time. He is taking six credits in a program where nine credits are a full load.

He enrolled July 3, providing all of his paperwork to the school — but Old Dominion did not send an enrollment certification to VA for 21 days, apparently while waiting for other veterans to also enroll.

Classes began Aug. 29, he said, and on Sept. 15 he received his book allowance and a pro-rated housing allowance for the days he attended school in August. That was the same day that the university received its tuition payment from VA.

“There were a few delays along the way but, by far, the biggest delay was caused by the school, not VA,” he said.

Keith Wilson, VA’s education service director, said last week that one issue could be that colleges and universities were holding onto enrollment certifications, which VA needs in order to finalize payments to institutions for tuition and fees, and payments to students for living stipends and book allowances.

Thursday is a big day for the Post-9/11 GI Bill; VA will be making living stipend payments for students whose claims have been fully approved. Payments will cover September and any days a student was enrolled in August.

Acknowledging that some students won’t be paid on Oct. 1, VA is working on a process for issuing emergency checks beginning Friday. The $3,000 payments will be advance pay, deducted from payments once they begin, VA officials said.


Article: http://www.militarytimes.com/news/20...blems_092909w/

[crystalminer]

I stuck with the ch30 benefits that I have been using sucessfully and without a hiccup for 2 years. Suddenly, since the Post 9/11 GI Bill became available (Summer 09 term) I have not been paid on time. Now I am into my second fall term (8 week schedules) and still have not recieved a paycheck since August (it is now November). When I call the VA they tell me that it has become a normal 4-6 week processing time on ALL claims, and that is AFTER my school has certified my classes. So basically, I will never be paid on time again, because my school terms are 8 weeks and thats when my school certifies my classes, every 8 weeks.
I was living on my GI Bill, but now I am working full time and only taking online classes. I tell everyone who talks about getting out of the military and living on their GI Bill to attend school to HAVE A PLAN, because the GI Bill is NOT RELIABLE anymore!