| Veterans have trouble getting post-9/11 GI Bill money |
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| Written by Andrea Silvers, The Shorthorn staff | ||||
| Wednesday, 04 November 2009 07:56 PM | ||||
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Veterans still waiting on post-9/11 GI Bill checks are surviving partly on temporary loans from the university. Of the 251,000 GI Bill applicants, 10 percent received benefits by the end of September and the end of October. Veterans Affairs hired a temporary contractor to help process the increased volume of claims, according to a VA press release. “My tuition was a couple thousand bucks, and the university took care of it because it looked like I wasn’t going to get my check in time,” Veterans Alliance President Warren Ponder said. Ponder said he was proactive about alerting the university about his delay in benefits. The university has been a vital help for student veterans, said Alexa Smith-Osborne, Student Veteran Project founder. “To their credit, they fronted money to cover tuition costs if student’s benefits were going to come after the census date,” she said. “Other universities in the Metroplex weren’t offering that.” The VA has been inundated with applications under the post-9/11 GI Bill, which provides more money than the previous Montgomery Bill, according to the VA Web site. To help tide veterans over, Veteran Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki announced that $3,000 emergency checks would be available to be mailed or picked up at 57 regional offices. The nearest one to UTA is in Waco, Texas. Smith-Osborne said all but a few students were helped out locally. The VA offered a national program for free rides to regional offices but by then students had already traveled on their own. Smith-Osborne said the university gave out individual gas cards for completing surveys and coming in for sessions. “I know they used those to travel to the regional office in Waco on their own to get their checks,” she said. Students were affected no differently than anyone on the national level, Ponder said. “The response time has varied,” he said. “Some veterans had their benefits take weeks, some months.” Living allowances were also delayed. This caused some to seek alternate financial aid methods. “We had a handful of individuals in really difficult circumstances,” Smith-Osborne said. “Part of what we do is work to enhance social-support systems. For some of these people this means reaching out to family, friends, old military buddies and their community when they need help.” With the increased workforce and diminishing applicants number waiting to be processed, the VA is improving its response time, veterans benefits coordinator Anita Perez said. “The VA is starting to respond a lot faster now that the spring semester is coming up,” she said. Views: 481 | E-mail
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| Last Updated ( Wednesday, 27 January 2010 03:32 PM ) | ||||
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