Published: Saturday, December 5, 2009
Software glitch slows down GI Bill college payments
Amanda Collier started college last August armed with a certificate of eligibility to use the new GI Bill benefits that her dad had earned in 22 years with the Coast Guard and transferred to her.
Next week Amanda will take final exams for her first semester at the University of Central Oklahoma. But neither she nor the university has received any GI Bill money to cover her tuition, housing or other costs.
The missing payments “made the semester a lot more complicated than it should have been,” said Collier said Wednesday. “Usually the first semester is hardest because you’re trying to figure out everything. Having money complications made it a lot more stressful.”
Amanda is among an unknown number of beneficiaries of the new GI Bill who’ve been victimized by computer software at the Department of Veterans Affairs. The software has left the VA staff unable to process two categories of claims that have been simply set aside to await a software upgrade.
The students and schools, it appears, never even got a letter to explain why their payments were frozen.
What might be called a “black hole” for some claims hit students whose award levels needed adjusting after the semester began, usually because a student added or drop a course. But it also affected students who changed schools, which the old GI Bill software couldn’t handle, said Keith Wilson, director of VA’s education service.
Collier’s situation was made more stressful because as a dependent, she was ineligible for the $3,000 lump-sum emergency payment VA officials began to make in early October to relieve financial stress on thousands of students whose benefits were delayed by various start-up challenges.
“We don’t have the mechanism for them to apply for that,” Wilson said.
Susan Collier, Collier’s mother, said she tried to learn everything she could over the past year about the new GI Bill and transferability so that financing her daughter’s education this fall would be smooth.
But the VA couldn’t deal with Collier dropping a course in September, cutting her total credit hours from 15 to 12. Collier wasn’t paid her book stipend or her housing allowance to cover dorm costs. Her university wasn’t paid promised tuition fees.
“The Housing Office at the school threatened us with letters each month that they were going to turn us over to a collection agency,” Susan Collier. “We called the Housing Office each month and they finally agreed to wait for the money...until the next month came and still no money.”
As of Dec. 1, VA had received 340,000 applications for Post-9/11 GI Bill eligibility determinations. Action has been completed on 276,000.
Among the pool of applicants found eligible for benefits, 124,000 have enrolled in school. A total of 104,500 students, and their schools, are receiving Post-9/11 GI bill payments.
VA has issued the $3,000 advance payments to more than 62,000 students. One of VA’s next big challenges will be to recoup the advance payments from students no longer affected by payment delays.
“We’re setting up the mechanics of how that will be done right now,” Wilson said. “We will notify the student concerning the amount of the advance payment. Then that [amount] will be recouped out of the future housing allowance and book stipend that would have gone to them.”
The overall backlog of GI Bill payments is shrinking, Wilson said.
“We peaked the second week in September, and it has been going down from that point,” he said. Wilson isn’t ready yet to say VA won’t need the advance payment program next semester.
To comment, e-mail milupdate@aol.com, write to P.O. Box 231111, Centreville, VA, 20120-1111 or visit: www.militaryupdate.com
Next week Amanda will take final exams for her first semester at the University of Central Oklahoma. But neither she nor the university has received any GI Bill money to cover her tuition, housing or other costs.
The missing payments “made the semester a lot more complicated than it should have been,” said Collier said Wednesday. “Usually the first semester is hardest because you’re trying to figure out everything. Having money complications made it a lot more stressful.”
Amanda is among an unknown number of beneficiaries of the new GI Bill who’ve been victimized by computer software at the Department of Veterans Affairs. The software has left the VA staff unable to process two categories of claims that have been simply set aside to await a software upgrade.
The students and schools, it appears, never even got a letter to explain why their payments were frozen.
What might be called a “black hole” for some claims hit students whose award levels needed adjusting after the semester began, usually because a student added or drop a course. But it also affected students who changed schools, which the old GI Bill software couldn’t handle, said Keith Wilson, director of VA’s education service.
Collier’s situation was made more stressful because as a dependent, she was ineligible for the $3,000 lump-sum emergency payment VA officials began to make in early October to relieve financial stress on thousands of students whose benefits were delayed by various start-up challenges.
“We don’t have the mechanism for them to apply for that,” Wilson said.
Susan Collier, Collier’s mother, said she tried to learn everything she could over the past year about the new GI Bill and transferability so that financing her daughter’s education this fall would be smooth.
But the VA couldn’t deal with Collier dropping a course in September, cutting her total credit hours from 15 to 12. Collier wasn’t paid her book stipend or her housing allowance to cover dorm costs. Her university wasn’t paid promised tuition fees.
“The Housing Office at the school threatened us with letters each month that they were going to turn us over to a collection agency,” Susan Collier. “We called the Housing Office each month and they finally agreed to wait for the money...until the next month came and still no money.”
As of Dec. 1, VA had received 340,000 applications for Post-9/11 GI Bill eligibility determinations. Action has been completed on 276,000.
Among the pool of applicants found eligible for benefits, 124,000 have enrolled in school. A total of 104,500 students, and their schools, are receiving Post-9/11 GI bill payments.
VA has issued the $3,000 advance payments to more than 62,000 students. One of VA’s next big challenges will be to recoup the advance payments from students no longer affected by payment delays.
“We’re setting up the mechanics of how that will be done right now,” Wilson said. “We will notify the student concerning the amount of the advance payment. Then that [amount] will be recouped out of the future housing allowance and book stipend that would have gone to them.”
The overall backlog of GI Bill payments is shrinking, Wilson said.
“We peaked the second week in September, and it has been going down from that point,” he said. Wilson isn’t ready yet to say VA won’t need the advance payment program next semester.
To comment, e-mail milupdate@aol.com, write to P.O. Box 231111, Centreville, VA, 20120-1111 or visit: www.militaryupdate.com
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