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GI Bill benefits denied?
Has anyone been denied their rightful benefit to college? I had the Chapter 34 GI Bill from the Viet Nam era. I served 8 years and when I got out I started college. But Congress let the authorization sunset and I was left holding the bag to pay for my education. I also have dedicated my entire career to public service, but do not qualify for loan forgiveness. Anyone else think this is unfair? Any solutions?
Has anyone been denied their rightful benefit to college? I had the Chapter 34 GI Bill from the Viet Nam era. I served 8 years and when I got out I started college. But Congress let the authorization sunset and I was left holding the bag to pay for my education. I also have dedicated my entire career to public service, but do not qualify for loan forgiveness. Anyone else think this is unfair? Any solutions?
Edited 11 y ago
Posted 11 y ago
Responses: 4
To answer your first question, yes, I was denied VA benefits for education. Long story short, I converted VEAP to MGIB and paid the difference between the two. However, seven years after retirement, I applied for VA benefits and was told I was ineligible since I had not paid into MGIB. Military records has the form (forgot number) showing I had converted VEAP to MGIB, but military pay (conveniently?) lost the last 18 month of my military pay records, which shows that I paid into the MGIB. Also, the VA office at the university in which I was enrolled did nothing to help resolve this. My advice: hold on to any and all paper pertaining to your military service as if it is pure gold; don't expect anyone else to do it for you, not even military records.
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<p>Chapter 32 GI Bill is the VEAP where they double-matched your contributions to basically set up an Education Fund for you to tap into that gave you 36-months of benefits.</p><p>. </p><p>Just like the Chapter 30 Active Duty GI Bill that followed, both of these programs need to be used within 10 years of departing the military.</p><p>. </p><p>The new Post 9/11 GI Bill has extended the expiration to 15yrs, but still has an expiration just like VEAP did.</p><p>. </p><p>So, not sure what you mean by "left holding the bag". I can only assume you're speaking of not using your benefits within the 10yr expiration and you had to pay for your education after that 10yr period.</p><p>. </p><p>Not that I agree that our educational benefits should expire, but that's what the policy is.</p>
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CSM Mike Maynard
Mr Spencer - you may be in luck.
You seem to be a "Category 2" beneficiary for Chapter 30 MGIB.
The time requirement is for you to have served for 1 day between 19Oct84 and 30Jun85.
Checkout the pamphlet at the link below starting at pg 11.
Hope this helps - hate to see us Veterans not get what we were supposed to get.
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SSG Jeffrey Spencer
It appears I am still screwed. This is one of the next bullets for requirements.
"If you’re found eligible, your eligibility period
(generally 10 years) will begin December 27,
2001."
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CSM Mike Maynard
Mr Spencer - it's a shame that it is so difficult to find out what the benefits and requirements are for education. We really have to do a better job of notifying our folks when things change so they know what options they have so that they can take advantage of them.
Sorry for your loss of benefits that you earned and couldn't take advantage of.
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I was jack hammered by the VEAP program when I served which was a useless program. As such, I can relate and it really is not fair as you could join the Peace Corps and get better coverage on your education.
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