washingtonscene GI Bill Housing T
Benefit Cut Lawmakers agree on a 50-percent housing cut for children.
he Post-9/11 GI Bill housing al- lowance enables student veterans to pursue education or training goals on a full-time basis in most cases. The benefit is pegged to the active duty housing allowance for an E-5 family of four at the location of the college or training facility where the student is enrolled. Full-time on- line students get a set rate for housing. Servicemembers who serve six or more
years in a uniformed service and agree to reenlist or extend their service for another four years earn the right to transfer their new GI bill entitlement to their spouse and dependent children. But the housing allowance will be cut in half for future GI bill transfers to children. Senate lawmakers matched the House
The housing allowance will be cut in half for future GI bill transfers to children.
action by levying a 50-percent housing cut for children with transferred Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits. The change does not apply for members who already have transferred benefits to their children. The House version of the provision
would also raise the minimum service requirement to 10 years’ service, with an agreement to serve two more years to se- cure GI bill transfer rights. The final Senate language was not available at the time of this writing but is expected to be the same. MOAA previously testified that DoD and the services — not the Veterans’ Affairs committees — should retain authority to set length-of-service requirements for trans- ferring the GI bill to match force needs. In the end, the House adopted a recommen- dation of the Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission (MCRMC) to change the transfer rules.
38 MILITARY OFFICER FEBRUARY 2016
Spouses with transferred benefits may use their GI bill immediately. Children must be 18 years old, and the sponsor must have completed at least 10 years’ service before they can access the benefit under current rules.
The housing allowance cut applies only
to children with (future) transferred ben- efits. Spouses will receive the current rate going forward. Transfer contracts in place as of 180
days after the date of enactment of the legislation will be grandfathered. Transfer contracts signed after that date will be subject to the lower housing rate. The MCRMC found the GI bill housing benefit often exceeded the actual cost of housing at colleges and recommended it be ended for dependents. But the Veter- ans’ Affairs committees decided to keep the current benefit for spouses and reduce the amount by 50 percent for children. MOAA urges those who meet or exceed
the current six-year service requirement to carefully consider their GI bill transferabil- ity options. They’ll have only six months after the bill is signed into law to decide whether they want to preserve the current housing rate for their children by agreeing to serve another four years (after complet- ing at least six) under a transfer-of-benefits reenlistment or service-extension contract.
Claims Backlog T
Improves An integrated strategy results in significant progress.
he VA claims backlog fell to 194,000, a 68-percent reduction from two years ago. In 2013, the VA
amassed over 611,000 disability claims. The VA defines the backlog as initial claims that have waited at least 125 days for a decision.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88