VA outlines efforts to fix GI Bill problems - Military News | News From Afghanistan, Iraq And Around The World - Military Times

VA outlines efforts to fix GI Bill problems

Veterans Affairs Department officials tried Jan. 21 to convince a skeptical House subcommittee that its problems with paying Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits are in the past.

Roger Baker, VA’s assistant secretary for information and technology, said problems that delayed payments of the new education benefit during the fall semester have been addressed.

About 7,000 benefits claims are being processed per day, compared with about 1,800 per day in the fall, Baker said.

Also, development of computer software to calculate the complex benefits will be done in time for the fall 2010 term, said Baker and retired Navy Capt. Mark Krause, program manager of the software project.

A sign of how well things are going, said Keith Wilson, VA’s education service director, is that the department has received 123,887 certifications of enrollment for the spring term for veterans using the new GI Bill and has processed 103,843.

Every claim received by Jan. 19 is expected to be processed in time for eligible students to receive living stipends and book allowances Feb. 1, VA officials said.

The officials testified before members of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee’s economic opportunity panel, which has been flooded with complaints from students who had trouble getting GI Bill payments for the fall term.

Baker acknowledged that about 1,500 students who applied for benefits for the fall term still have not been paid. He blamed the delay on missing information that the students still needed to provide.

Baker said VA apologizes for the payment delays in the fall.

“We believe we have identified and resolved the causes of many of those delays, and that the results for the spring enrollment will be substantially improved over those of the fall,” he said.

Subcommittee chairwoman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, D-S.D., made it clear that she is not satisfied.

“Current delays in processing education claims are unacceptable,” she said, though she acknowledged that Congress is partly to blame for creating a benefit that is so complicated it takes multiple steps to calculate.

She and Rep. John Boozman of Arkansas, the subcommittee’s ranking Republican, also complained about problems they have uncovered for students trying to get information from VA’s education call center in Muskogee, Okla.

The center is closed Thursdays and Fridays, apparently because staffers who answer phones spend those days helping process claims, Herseth Sandlin said. She added that people in the call center are not allowed to take any action on claims filed by people in another VA region; call center hours do not take into account the needs of student veterans living outside the U.S.; and there is a serious problem with dropped calls.