Changes to the Post 9/11 GI Bill coming

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by BTroutman, Jul 29, 2010.

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  1. BTroutman

    BTroutman New Member

    A compromise veteran’s education bill that would modify the year-old Post-9/11 GI Bill could be introduced in the House of Representatives as early as Thursday by an Idaho lawmaker.

    Sponsored by Rep. Walt Minnick, D-Idaho, an Army veteran, the bill represents an agreement between major veterans’ service organizations and the Veterans Affairs Department on ways to fix, improve or otherwise modify the benefits program that was launched Aug. 1, 2009.

    The changes would not take effect until 2011, a delay included at the request of VA.

    Among the key changes:

    • Tuition and fee calculations will be simplified so that VA will pay full tuition and full fees for any eligible veteran who is a full-time student at a public college or university. For those attending private schools, tuition and fees would be capped at $20,000 a year per student.

    This would abolish the current procedure of setting a reimbursement cap for each state based on the cost of tuition and fees for the state’s most expensive four-year public school. For many private school students, $20,000 for tuition and fees would be a substantial increase over current state caps.

    • Active-duty service members and spouses of active-duty members using transferred benefits would become eligible for the $1,000 book allowance that already goes to other student veterans using the Post-9/11 GI Bill.

    • Living stipends would be available to people taking distance learning classes without the current requirement that they must take as least one classroom course to qualify.

    In addition, a slight change in wording would make living stipends available to anyone taking enough credits to be considered a half-time student. Current law limits stipends to those attending more than half time.

    • Service members transferring GI Bill benefits to a spouse or children — an option aimed at career service members — would include the right to transfer any so-called “kickers” that increase payments so that family members could use the money. But the proposal also requires the Defense Department to start reimbursing VA for benefits used by family members, which might lead to future restrictions on who could share their education benefits.

    • For National Guard and reserve members, the bill gives credit for full-time active service in the Active Guard and Reserve program and time mobilized for natural disasters toward earning benefits, service that currently doesn’t count. And Guard and reserve members would have a better chance of receiving additional college help if they attend private schools, because the bill would extend the Yellow Ribbon matching-grant program to those who receive a reduced percentage of benefits because they served less than a full active-duty obligation and were not combat-disabled.

    • On-the-job training and apprenticeships programs, now excluded from the Post-9/11 GI bill, could be covered, in many cases making benefits 30 percent greater than tuition payments under previous GI Bill programs.

    Minnick said the changes are the result of negotiations with VA and major military and veterans groups, all aimed at making a good program even better.

    “In this era where education has gotten so expensive and difficult to obtain, society owes them a hand to get … the best education possible,” Minnick said.

    While he is not on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee to which the bill will be referred, Minnick said he is signing up a bipartisan collection of original cosponsors that will include committee members.

    “It is an easy sell” to get cosponsors, he said.

    The American Legion, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, Student Veterans of America and the Military Officers Association of America are among those who have worked on the compromise.

    Many of these provisions are similar to provisions of S. 3447, the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Improvements Act of 2010, introduced earlier this year by Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee chairman. Akaka, who is now refining his bill, plans to bring it to a vote in his committee Aug. 5.

    The House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, which will receive Minnick’s bill, has scheduled a Sept. 16 hearing on veterans’ education benefits.
     
  2. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

  3. NorCal

    NorCal Active Member

    That is some great news. I'd like to see the GI Bill extended for those who missed a huge amount of time deployed when they could have spent that time in school. I have three years of deployment time that I will never get back and that would be huge now that my benefits are due to expire.
     
  4. JBjunior

    JBjunior Active Member

    Obviously you aren't talking about the Post 9/11 but did your benefits not reset the 10 year timeline when you deployed? Or are you just saying that the 10 years isn't enough and you wish they would account for deployment time as well?
     
  5. NorCal

    NorCal Active Member

    I checked with the VA and my time was not extended or reset on account of my deployments.
     
  6. peejcj8

    peejcj8 New Member

    great news! The lack of BAH for taking online courses was a eye opener for me. The pre 9/11 GiBill was better for you if you were going online, but I thought for sure that would change. I had no choice since I ended active duty in 2000.

    I paid for my BS and 3 classes of my MS with the montgomery GI bill. Best 1200 dollars I ever spent, even if I only made 4K that year!
     
  7. johnp

    johnp New Member

    Correct me if Iam wrong or misinterpeting you statement but your GI Bill benefits expire ten years after you leave the service. So how does deployment time cancel out your earned GI Bill time?
     
  8. JBjunior

    JBjunior Active Member

    I need clarification also, I couldn't tell if he was saying that while he was in he couldn't complete his degree and that they should allow more time based on that or if he was in the reserves and was re-activated for an extended period that cut into his 10 year time.

    I would understand being upset that if he was active duty and then separated and entered the reserves, since his 10 years started upon his exit from active duty that he was then called up from the reserves for several years and it didn't restart his clock.
     
  9. jaer57

    jaer57 New Member

    Whoever you talked to at the VA was wrong and you can appeal their decision. You have 15 years to use the Post 9/11 GI Bill (chapter 33) and 10 years for the Montgomery GI Bill (Chapter 30) based off your last day of active duty service. If you've been discharged, your DD-214 will suffice as evidence. If you're still in the reserves, a statement of service signed by your adjutant/S-1 officer or commanding officer will work. A by direction signature will be fine if necessary. A reserve points statement will work as well. Your deployments count as active duty and reset your GI bill clock.

    If you've applied for benefits and been denied in writing, you need to submit a notice of disagreement to the VA claims office that denied you. This address will be on the letter denying your claim. If you need help, I suggest talking to the folks at your local American Legion or VFW; lots of help there. If you haven't yet applied for benefits and you were just told this over the phone or via email, then your application will probably go through fine. In any case, you got some bad info and you can appeal it. Good luck!
     
  10. johnp

    johnp New Member

    Indeed clarification is needed.

    One excerpt from a link I found:

    (I think there are several bills in congress to extend the amount of time everyone has to use thier education benefits. But at this time the only 2 ways to extend your time to use active duty education benefits is to have a documnted medical reason why you could not attend school during your 10 year period of eligibility or "have another period of service such as being called out of the Reserves to active duty for 90 or more days". That gets you a new 10 years from when you got off duty the second time.)

    -Basically if your deployments were during your Active duty time your benefits dont expire until 10 years after leaving AD.

    -If you were a reservist and got called up for three years of deployments your benefits should have been updated and the clock should have been restarted, from what I read. Iam going AD in a few months so I don't have any personal knowledge of being in the reserves.

    How Can I Extend My GI Bill? | Montgomery GI Bill | GI Bill Expert | GIBill.com

    GI Bill expiration - Topic Powered by Social Strata
     
  11. NorCal

    NorCal Active Member

    I was told the 10 year clock on my GI Bill begun when I took my first course and filed for my benefits. This was during my 1st year in the service when I took a few courses. I completed 2-3 courses prior to 9-11 when my unit became highly deployed. That was almost 9 years ago now, and I was told I only have a few months of benefits left.
     
  12. Wow. It's amazing how different information has been conveyed. I didn't use mine while on active duty so my situation might be different, but I was told that the clock started my last day on active duty.
     
  13. johnp

    johnp New Member

    O ok, so the last time you were deployed/activated etc. was 9 years ago. Then you are nearing the end of the 10 year window, for the Montgomery GI, from what I've read, asked, and been told if the tuition assistance doesn't cover your school costs for what ever reason you can dip into the gi Bil to pay the excess but that just takes away funds it should not have started the expiration date I don't believe. But if you were deployed after September 10 2001, I believe, then you qualify for the post 9/11 GI Bill. And like Jaer said with the post 9/11 you can use up to 15 years after leaving the service.
     
  14. jaer57

    jaer57 New Member

    Whoever told you that is wrong. Your 10-year countdown for chapter 30 benefits was reset when you deployed. If your last deployment was ~2005, then you have until ~2015 to exhaust those benefits.

    There's a way to solve this for sure. Do you have a WAVE account? If so, login to WAVE, click on "Benefit Status Information" and look for your "Delimiting date". That will be the date your Chapter 30 benefits expire (which should be 10 years from your last day of active duty, not your first class). If it isn't, your have grounds to appeal that with proof of your latest active duty period.

    Don't let them lead you down the wrong path; talk to a VA counselor, tell them that it should be 10 years later, and if they tell you otherwise talk to their supervisor because they are wrong. Refer to the below pamphlets that the VA gives out:

    Check out page 3 of this pamphlet regarding the expiration of benefits for chapter 30:

    http://www.gibill.va.gov/documents/CH30_Pamphlet.pdf

    Check out page 2 of this pamphlet regarding the expiration of benefits for chapter 33:

    http://www.gibill.va.gov/documents/CH33_Pamphlet.pdf

    You should now be armed with enough info to tell the people giving you bad info that they are wrong, so they can stop giving it to others!
     
  15. NorCal

    NorCal Active Member

    I'll look into the wave website and see what it says. I was told by the VA rep at my community college that my benefits were up soon, but I'll check the website and see what time I have left. I know when I switched from the Montgomery GI Bill to the POST 9-11 GI Bill they said by doing so I would forfeit 12 months on my GI Bill to make the switch for more money. The whole situation is just really confusing. . . .

    Sit Rep: I checked the WAVE website and I have 23 months and 17 days left on my clock. However, it doesn't list me on the POST 9-11 BI Bill. . . thats weird.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 30, 2010
  16. johnp

    johnp New Member

    Contact someone at the VA who really knows their stuff, and try to get your status changed to Post 9/11, who knows you might get more time or money added.

    make the next 2 years count, don't lose track of time and use up all those benefits, God knows you earned 'em! Good Luck.
     
  17. JBjunior

    JBjunior Active Member

    Honestly if you only have a small portion of money left on the Montgomery then use it all up then you get one year additional under Post 9/11. Check it out.
     
  18. jaer57

    jaer57 New Member

    You have 23 months and 17 days left of BENEFITS. You need to look at the delimiting DATE to tell you when your GI bill expires. It will be a date, not in the format of months/days remaining. That just means you have 23 months and 17 days of full-time benefits; so you can go full time to school for 23 months and 17 days before they run out. Half-time school would be double that, and so on. But the benefits don't expire until the date under the "delimiting date" headline. If you're not in school now, that 23 months and 17 days will stay idle until you get enrolled in another semester.
     
  19. jaer57

    jaer57 New Member

    This is true! If you use all 36 months of Chapter 30 benefits, and you are otherwise qualified for Chapter 33 benefits, you will be eligible for 12 more months of chapter 33 benefits.
     
  20. NorCal

    NorCal Active Member

    You've got to respect the fact that you can learn so much on this forum, great information guys/gals, thanks again.

    Hooah
     

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