Noteboom The Law Firm

Veterans Weigh-In on Post 9/11 GI Bill

November 12, 2010 - There is no denying the attractiveness of the benefits offered by the Post-9/11 GI Bill. Those benefits serve well to bring people into the military and now, because of new benefits, like the ability to transfer benefits to other family members, they are also helping retain military personnel. Since last year, significant improvements have been made in processing and paying claims for those veteran-students choosing to use the bill to go to school. A new report, however, claims there are so many hoops to jump through, confusion and aggravation abound.

The American Council on Education took a strong look at the effectiveness of the Post-9/11 GI Bill. The study used surveys and 3 states of focus groups and tracked the voyage of soldiers as they transition from their life in the military to their lives as students. The veteran-students made multiple complaints about the transition, showed there was room for improvement, and implicated the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and colleges in creating a "bureaucratic maze." The most frequently cited complaints were:

• Long VA hotlines hold times;
• Late payments from the VA;
• Conflicting transfer policies for class credits within institutions; and
• A basic misunderstanding about what VA checks are supposed to cover.

Not everything reported was negative. Many veterans were happy with the money the bill provided for books and living expenses. Supporting a previously held belief, about 25% of responding veteran-students stated they chose to seek out higher education in the first place only because of the benefits under the Post-9/11 GI Bill.

The backlog of Post-9/11 GI Bill payments the VA experienced was not a big secret, but this survey shed light on the other side of the problem-the veteran-students who had to exist without the money. The study was able to also look at some of the issues veterans faced in transitioning that were not school related, e.g., physical or psychological problems as a result of their service.

Although there were negatives and positives reported, the VA is constantly changing how they handle different aspects of the Post-9/11 GI Bill. Just as changes are made, there will undoubtedly be positives and negatives reported to those changes as well.