Noteboom The Law Firm

GI Bill Changing But Nobody Knows When

March 31, 2010 - Congress may be changing certain aspects of the Post-9/11 GI Bill. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) asked Congress to hold off on these changes until next year. Veterans groups, however, want to improve the current program and plan on urging Congress to make these changes sooner rather than later.

The Post-9/11 GI Bill covers a veterans' tuition and provides a housing allowance. Veterans can use the tuition at any university nationwide but the amount is based on the tuition of the most expensive university in the veteran's home state. The housing allowance is equal to that of an E-5 with dependants based on their school's zip code.

The program, however, did not launch smoothly. Some of these problems forced the VA to send veterans $3,000 advances just to keep the veterans in school because the VA did not process the Post-9/11 GI Bill payments fast enough. Student-veterans and schools were left in the lurch waiting for their owed money.

The VA is now asking Congress not to change anything about the Post-9/11 GI Bill until the VA can revamp their payment system and ensure everything is smooth from here on out. The other side feels that the sooner the Post-9/11 GI Bill is changed, the sooner veteran-students can receive new benefits. One new benefit being hoped for is to expand the veteran's living allowance to include being able to take online courses.

Before changes can be made to add more education benefits for veterans, there has to be an efficient payment process in place to support the payment distribution. There is no reason for veteran-students and colleges to have to wait months to receive their tuition and housing benefits.