In response to my story on Thursday that the Veterans Affairs Department has a backlog of 191,338 unprocessed educational benefits claims, VA sent along some background information in an attempt to clarify the situation.
Although the clarification was somewhat confusing, the background info says that to date VA has received a total of "193,000 claims for eligibility determinations under the Post-9/11 GI bill and has completed action on 136,000 of those eligibility determinations."
Journalists are not great at math, but, I do believe, those figures mean that VA still has not processed 57,000 post-9/11 GI bill claims, with the fall semester slated to start in less than three weeks. The background info says the majority of the claims currently pending were received in the last 30 days.
I also was told that VA currently has 138,000 education claims pending (83,000 eligibility determinations and 55,000 enrollment certifications) for all VA educational benefits, including the Post-9/11 GI bill, the Montgomery GI bill, the Reserve Education Assistance Program, and Dependents Educational Assistance, with some 76 percent or 104,000 of the 138,000 were received within the last 30 days.
This background information also seems to put the onus on the schools, pointing out VA cannot pay benefits under any educational program until schools report student enrollment information. Many schools were still trying to work out their annual budgets until late July and were unable to set the tuition rates VA uses to process claims.
I think the bottom line here is a lot of vets face the start of the fall semester without their hard-earned benefits in hand.
Schools who enrolled students under the post-9/11 GI bill are supposed to receive payment for tuition and fees direct from VA, and I have the feeling VA will ask the schools to give the students a free ride until a check from Uncle Sugar arrives.
That's hinted at in an excellent Aug. 7 story from WBAL-TV in Baltimore on the payment problems vets faced at the University of Maryland. The WBAL story included a statement from VA about the reality that schools nationwide will soon face as VA works to whittle down its education claim backlog:
"The VA has reached out to the states and schools to strongly encourage them to demonstrate flexibility and forbearance when working with students receiving VA education benefits," the department said in a statement.
I wonder why VA did not provide me with such a statement.
The WBAL story also pointed out vets are on their own when it comes to paying for books and room and board. "The University of Maryland said it will take care of the tuition until the department catches up, but students will have to take care of books and supplies on their own."
I mentor a veteran who attends The George Washington University in Washington, and he told me that this whole payment mess leaves him "worried and scared."
I understand. In 1971, while attending Fordham University in New York City, I had not received one dime from VA for an entire fall semester as Christmas approached.
COMMENTS
I am still using the Chap 30 MGIB because I was told by the VA that if I exhausted it first that I could get 12 more months of benefits under Chap 33. I recently transferred from a community college to a university and submitted a form to change my place of training on 08/21. Needless to say, it has still not been processed. I called VA and voived my concern about how long I had been waiting and they told me that all I had to do was print out a copy of the form that I submitted via VONAPP and give to my school. According to page 29 of the VA's WAVE handbook, the school can then use that form to submit my enrollment verification using a caveat "VA Form 22-1995 submitted via VONAPP." This would allow the VA to process my verification at the same time that my change of school was processed. My school (Concordia University Texas), however, refuses to process my enrollment until they have the actual certificate. That means that I will probably have to wait another 2 months before I see my first payment. I explained to the school that I used the payments for room and board and that I needed the money and they basically told me "tough." They further said that they did not know why the VA told students that the school could process the verification without the certificate, because they needed certain information off of the certificate to submit the verification. I don't know what to believe. This is the first time in 9 years that I have had a problem. What a mess!
JSB 09/16/09 03:23 pm ET
My eligibility determination paperwork to transfer from the Montgomery GI Bill to the Post 9/11 was submitted on June 17, 2009. To date they have not even processed that paperwork let alone my enrollment verification paperwork. How is it that my claim which was not submitted within the last 30 days but 3 months ago has not been processed?
Also, if that's the case then how long will it take them to process my enrollment certification, which my school decided to send August 4th when I declared the classes June 30th.
I have called the VA on numerous occasions of which only twice in the past month I've been able to get through. When I do they can not give me any straight answers and keep giving me the answer of 8 weeks. 8 weeks from when? From June when my eligibility application was submitted to them, from August when my enrollment verification was sent to them, from the time they answered the phone? When?
I have taken this matter to my congressman's office in hopes of receiving a straight answer as to why my paperwork is delayed. I have been informed by the VA only that all the necessary documents have been received but I have been given no timeline as to how much more time it will take to process. I understand the enrollment verification not being processed (Sent Aug. 4) but the eligibility verification I do not (Sent June 17).
If there is any help or advice anyone can pass on to me I am "all ears". As for now I guess I'm gonna have to figure out where my next car payment/rent check is coming from.
David McLean 09/05/09 02:24 am ET
Daniel, If you are eligible for the New GI Bill, you would not have received a payment in June. New GI Bill benefits did not take effect (by law) until August 1. If you are eligible for some other educational benefit such as the Montgomery GI Bill, then maybe you are due a June payment. But you would not have received any New GI Bill funds prior to August 1.
Anonymous but informed 08/24/09 12:23 pm ET
I've been waiting on June's GI Bill payment. The VA received my enrollment certification on July 8, 2009; this is the seventh week since the VA received my paperwork.
The numbers that the VA gave you regarding the education benefits seem way off. If you go to the 2009 Monday Morning Workload Report webpage and open up the August 17, 2009 report, you can clearly see that there were over 211,000 education work items pending - an increase from the week before of nearly 20,000.
I might not have the money to take the SAT (fee is due Sept. 9) let alone pay for books for next quarter. Let's not forget that the VA paid out millions in dollars in bonuses.
Daniel Maccabee 08/24/09 08:42 am ET