Getting G.I. benefits is a challenge for veterans in college
This is a condensed version of the full-length IowaWatch investigative story. You may read the full story here.
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa --- The post-9/11 G.I. Bill offers a college education, paid in full, for veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Getting that promise fulfilled, however, is difficult for some Iowa veterans. Payments arrive as many as two months late, leaving them struggling to pay for housing and other living expenses.
The reasons are many. Communication from the Department of Veterans Affairs, and in some instances universities and colleges, has been lacking when it comes to how the G.I. Bill program works. In turn, some students don't provide their college enough information about their status as a veteran on the G.I. Bill.
Moreover, the VA has relied on paper records more than automated record-keeping until a recent move to electronic records.
For some, that means taking out student loans to pay expenses covered by G.I. Bill benefits, working at multiple part-time jobs while in school and generally juggling everyday expenses.
"It gets hectic. I basically just paid everything out of pocket this semester," said Iraq War veteran Dwain Caldwell, 26, a University of Northern Iowa senior from Washburn.
"It just comes down to cutting down on stuff because you know you're going to have to pay for books," Caldwell said.
Waiting
Ariela Myers, 26, of Boulder, Colo., served in the Army in Iraq from 2008-11. Both Myers and her husband, Dan Merwin, 29, an Army veteran from McAllen, Texas, moved to Cedar Falls in 2011 to attend UNI.
"I was in the music program, and particularly wanted to study with a particular professor, so that's what brought us here. We also thought it was going to be pretty military friendly, given the location of the university," Myers said.
Myers and Merwin live in Waterloo and noticed various buildings there dedicated to veterans, such as the Sullivan Brothers Iowa Veterans Museum and The Five Sullivan Brothers Convention Center.
They were eligible for G.I. Bill benefits when they enrolled in fall 2011. Receiving the money their first semester proved tumultuous, though. Their housing stipend of $903 per month was delayed by more than two months.
"I think we feel as frustrated as a lot of people do," Myers said. "We expect a particular thing, and its been promoted to us this way like, 'Oh this is great. I can go to school and I won't have to get a part-time job so I can focus entirely on my degree, and it's going to set me up for whatever I need to do once I'm out of the Army.' It can be frustrating. It can be a letdown."
More than two years later, Myers and Merwin continue to wait up to two months for their monthly housing allowance. The worst waits come as a semester starts.
Myers and Merwin hold part-time jobs and are full-time students. Myers holds a work study job where she may earn up to $1,000 a semester, and Merwin receives between $220 to $260 a month from serving in the National Guard. But they also have thousands of dollars in loans and say they cannot afford health insurance.
Caldwell, a geographic information science and computer science double major, is married and has a 2-year-old daughter. His book stipend often arrives late --- two weeks after he needed textbooks for classes this semester. Student loans help bridge the gap.
During Caldwell's first semester at UNI in summer 2011, he did not receive his tuition funds until three months after the bill was due. New to campus, Caldwell didn't know what to do. He faced late fees and could not register for fall classes.
"It took them a long time to figure out that I was actually a student veteran in the (UNI) business office. So I'd have academic holds and stuff like that until the VA paid my tuition," Caldwell said. "And the first time you think, like, they understand that you're a student veteran and stuff, and then you're getting fees and late fees and holds. So it was kind of annoying to have to kind of dig in through that."
Caldwell is a full-time student with two part-time jobs. He takes home $1,200 to $1,300 a month. His wife works full-time. They wife work different shifts so they can care for their daughter, and his mother and sister-in-law assist with baby-sitting.
Each month, household bills range from $2,000 to $2,200. He has $7,000 in student loans and $1,500 in debt with his credit card.
This year's housing allowance is $900 a month.
Billions
Since 2009, the G.I. Bill has paid $26.2 billion in benefits to 921,902 veterans and their educational institutions, Terry Jemmison, public affairs officer for the Department of Veteran Affairs in Washington, D.C., wrote in email.
According to the VA's website, various benefits are offered to students, including tuition, a book stipend for up to $1,000 and a housing allowance based on where the student lives. The benefits assist veterans for up to 36 months of education at a college, university or training school, and living expenses.
There are two types of claims: original and supplemental. Original claims, when a veteran applies for benefits for the first time, and supplemental claims that cover veterans already in the system.
A press release Jemmison provided reported the average wait time for supplement claims was six days in February, "cutting by more than half the processing time experienced during the spring enrollment period last year." For original claims, the average wait time to assess veteran eligibility was 24 days, the VA release reported.
The VA is updating from paper to electronic claims processing, but some veterans still face unexpected complications.
Curtis Coy, deputy undersecretary for economic opportunity at the VA in Washington, said veterans may have to wait longer than 24 days for their first benefits because they do not submit all of the information needed to the VA and the college they attend .
When it comes to filing supplemental claims, only 50 percent of the benefits are processed automatically.
And processing a claim takes time.
"It doesn't mean that the veteran is going to get that check six days later," Coy said.
At Iowa's three state universities, school certifying officials are present to provide evidence to the VA that military students are enrolled at that university, the dates they are enrolled and the amount of credit hours they are taking.
The housing and book stipends are directly transferred to the student from the VA, and tuition is sent to the university, UNI school certifying official Patricia Welter said.
None of Iowa's state universities charge military students late fines due to tuition benefits processing late.
Welter said approximately 90 out of 215 veterans studying at UNI received G.I. Bill benefits during the fall 2012 semester. She said the approximate wait time for students to receive their G.I. Bill benefits like housing or tuition may range from two weeks to two months.
Contact
When their G.I. Bill benefits were late, Myers, Merwin and Caldwell called the VA to learn why. Reaching someone to talk to is no easy task.
"I've never actually been able to contact anyone from the VA directly except for the time they overpaid me," Caldwell said.
Coy said the best way to contact the VA is through the school certifying official, the VA website Facebook and the VA's toll-free number.
But Welter, from UNI, said she's noticed a difference at the VA since last fall in its willingness to answer questions.
"Before, I used to be able to call in and (the VA) would give me all kinds of information, so I could help the students out. But recently they've made a change," she said. "They don't want to talk about amounts, and where they (students) went and how much went out to a specific account numbers and such. That's something they've kind of curtailed giving information to certifying officials."
She added: "It's frustrating because I'm kind of the middleman with it."
Coy was unaware of any problems giving out information. He said the VA has made advancements over the past few months to make processing go more smoothly, including the ongoing transfer of paper-based processing to electronic based processing.
"This spring we think we've come a long way in resolving that. Do we want to get those processing times down lower? Yes. Are we working incredibly hard to do that? Yes. Have we had considerable success in the last number of months doing that? I would say yes. Are we 100 percent there? No, but we've come a long ways. We're not resting on our laurels, we're continuing to push hard."
Myers, Merwin and Caldwell said they have noticed improvements. And all three are thankful for the G.I. Bill benefits.
"We're not complaining because you've given us a gift and we want more. We're not trying to be like the mouse asking for a cookie after you give it a glass of milk," Merwin said.
"But," Myers continued, "if you give us the glass of milk, can you just hand it to us and it will be there?"
This article was published in The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, IA), The Courier (Waterloo, IA), Burlington Hawk Eye, Iowa City Press-Citizen, Quad-City Times, Sioux City Journal, Patch.com, KCRG-TV (Cedar Rapids, IA) and KWWL-TV (Waterloo).
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa --- The post-9/11 G.I. Bill offers a college education, paid in full, for veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Getting that promise fulfilled, however, is difficult for some Iowa veterans. Payments arrive as many as two months late, leaving them struggling to pay for housing and other living expenses.
The reasons are many. Communication from the Department of Veterans Affairs, and in some instances universities and colleges, has been lacking when it comes to how the G.I. Bill program works. In turn, some students don't provide their college enough information about their status as a veteran on the G.I. Bill.
Moreover, the VA has relied on paper records more than automated record-keeping until a recent move to electronic records.
For some, that means taking out student loans to pay expenses covered by G.I. Bill benefits, working at multiple part-time jobs while in school and generally juggling everyday expenses.
"It gets hectic. I basically just paid everything out of pocket this semester," said Iraq War veteran Dwain Caldwell, 26, a University of Northern Iowa senior from Washburn.
"It just comes down to cutting down on stuff because you know you're going to have to pay for books," Caldwell said.
Waiting
Ariela Myers, 26, of Boulder, Colo., served in the Army in Iraq from 2008-11. Both Myers and her husband, Dan Merwin, 29, an Army veteran from McAllen, Texas, moved to Cedar Falls in 2011 to attend UNI.
"I was in the music program, and particularly wanted to study with a particular professor, so that's what brought us here. We also thought it was going to be pretty military friendly, given the location of the university," Myers said.
Myers and Merwin live in Waterloo and noticed various buildings there dedicated to veterans, such as the Sullivan Brothers Iowa Veterans Museum and The Five Sullivan Brothers Convention Center.
They were eligible for G.I. Bill benefits when they enrolled in fall 2011. Receiving the money their first semester proved tumultuous, though. Their housing stipend of $903 per month was delayed by more than two months.
"I think we feel as frustrated as a lot of people do," Myers said. "We expect a particular thing, and its been promoted to us this way like, 'Oh this is great. I can go to school and I won't have to get a part-time job so I can focus entirely on my degree, and it's going to set me up for whatever I need to do once I'm out of the Army.' It can be frustrating. It can be a letdown."
More than two years later, Myers and Merwin continue to wait up to two months for their monthly housing allowance. The worst waits come as a semester starts.
Myers and Merwin hold part-time jobs and are full-time students. Myers holds a work study job where she may earn up to $1,000 a semester, and Merwin receives between $220 to $260 a month from serving in the National Guard. But they also have thousands of dollars in loans and say they cannot afford health insurance.
Caldwell, a geographic information science and computer science double major, is married and has a 2-year-old daughter. His book stipend often arrives late --- two weeks after he needed textbooks for classes this semester. Student loans help bridge the gap.
During Caldwell's first semester at UNI in summer 2011, he did not receive his tuition funds until three months after the bill was due. New to campus, Caldwell didn't know what to do. He faced late fees and could not register for fall classes.
"It took them a long time to figure out that I was actually a student veteran in the (UNI) business office. So I'd have academic holds and stuff like that until the VA paid my tuition," Caldwell said. "And the first time you think, like, they understand that you're a student veteran and stuff, and then you're getting fees and late fees and holds. So it was kind of annoying to have to kind of dig in through that."
Caldwell is a full-time student with two part-time jobs. He takes home $1,200 to $1,300 a month. His wife works full-time. They wife work different shifts so they can care for their daughter, and his mother and sister-in-law assist with baby-sitting.
Each month, household bills range from $2,000 to $2,200. He has $7,000 in student loans and $1,500 in debt with his credit card.
This year's housing allowance is $900 a month.
Billions
Since 2009, the G.I. Bill has paid $26.2 billion in benefits to 921,902 veterans and their educational institutions, Terry Jemmison, public affairs officer for the Department of Veteran Affairs in Washington, D.C., wrote in email.
According to the VA's website, various benefits are offered to students, including tuition, a book stipend for up to $1,000 and a housing allowance based on where the student lives. The benefits assist veterans for up to 36 months of education at a college, university or training school, and living expenses.
There are two types of claims: original and supplemental. Original claims, when a veteran applies for benefits for the first time, and supplemental claims that cover veterans already in the system.
A press release Jemmison provided reported the average wait time for supplement claims was six days in February, "cutting by more than half the processing time experienced during the spring enrollment period last year." For original claims, the average wait time to assess veteran eligibility was 24 days, the VA release reported.
The VA is updating from paper to electronic claims processing, but some veterans still face unexpected complications.
Curtis Coy, deputy undersecretary for economic opportunity at the VA in Washington, said veterans may have to wait longer than 24 days for their first benefits because they do not submit all of the information needed to the VA and the college they attend .
When it comes to filing supplemental claims, only 50 percent of the benefits are processed automatically.
And processing a claim takes time.
"It doesn't mean that the veteran is going to get that check six days later," Coy said.
At Iowa's three state universities, school certifying officials are present to provide evidence to the VA that military students are enrolled at that university, the dates they are enrolled and the amount of credit hours they are taking.
The housing and book stipends are directly transferred to the student from the VA, and tuition is sent to the university, UNI school certifying official Patricia Welter said.
None of Iowa's state universities charge military students late fines due to tuition benefits processing late.
Welter said approximately 90 out of 215 veterans studying at UNI received G.I. Bill benefits during the fall 2012 semester. She said the approximate wait time for students to receive their G.I. Bill benefits like housing or tuition may range from two weeks to two months.
Contact
When their G.I. Bill benefits were late, Myers, Merwin and Caldwell called the VA to learn why. Reaching someone to talk to is no easy task.
"I've never actually been able to contact anyone from the VA directly except for the time they overpaid me," Caldwell said.
Coy said the best way to contact the VA is through the school certifying official, the VA website Facebook and the VA's toll-free number.
But Welter, from UNI, said she's noticed a difference at the VA since last fall in its willingness to answer questions.
"Before, I used to be able to call in and (the VA) would give me all kinds of information, so I could help the students out. But recently they've made a change," she said. "They don't want to talk about amounts, and where they (students) went and how much went out to a specific account numbers and such. That's something they've kind of curtailed giving information to certifying officials."
She added: "It's frustrating because I'm kind of the middleman with it."
Coy was unaware of any problems giving out information. He said the VA has made advancements over the past few months to make processing go more smoothly, including the ongoing transfer of paper-based processing to electronic based processing.
"This spring we think we've come a long way in resolving that. Do we want to get those processing times down lower? Yes. Are we working incredibly hard to do that? Yes. Have we had considerable success in the last number of months doing that? I would say yes. Are we 100 percent there? No, but we've come a long ways. We're not resting on our laurels, we're continuing to push hard."
Myers, Merwin and Caldwell said they have noticed improvements. And all three are thankful for the G.I. Bill benefits.
"We're not complaining because you've given us a gift and we want more. We're not trying to be like the mouse asking for a cookie after you give it a glass of milk," Merwin said.
"But," Myers continued, "if you give us the glass of milk, can you just hand it to us and it will be there?"
This article was published in The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, IA), The Courier (Waterloo, IA), Burlington Hawk Eye, Iowa City Press-Citizen, Quad-City Times, Sioux City Journal, Patch.com, KCRG-TV (Cedar Rapids, IA) and KWWL-TV (Waterloo).