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.