One year later, VA still struggles with new GI Bill
Published: July 26, 2010
This time last year, officials at the Department of Veterans Affairs were scrambling to finalize their payout systems for the first wave of post-9/11 GI Bill recipients, but were confident the program would be ready in time for the start of classes. Two months later, they were apologizing for massive delays in tuition payments, missing housing stipends and growing anger among student veterans.
One year later, many of those problems have been corrected, but they system is still far from perfect. The Military Times last week reported that more than 150,000 students may have been shortchanged on their housing stipends since January because of a mistake in updating the department's records.
VA officials announced they will automatically send the missing money to students in coming weeks, in the form of a single check. That'll mean several hundred dollars for students living in areas where basic allowance for housing spiked last year.
Veterans groups applauded the move but at the same time grumbled over year another headache with the new education benefits.
"Shouldn't the kinks be worked out by now?" wrote Richard Allen Smith at the VetVoice blog. "It seems to me that we are passed the point where hiccups are acceptable."
Groups had raised concerns that the continued problems would scare away student veterans from using the benefit, but last week AMVETS reported that, despite the failings, student attrition among new GI Bill users was low and enrollment actually increased from the fall to the spring semester.
And the VA has promised to have its new computerized payment system in place by the end of this year, which should eliminate future problems with the checks. But that still leaves at least one more semester for student veterans dealing with outdated systems to process their tuition and housing.
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