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Vets Notes: GI Bill, Need to Know

By VVAW

The "Vets Notes" column of THE VETERAN tries to make some sense of a few of the thousands of VA rules and regulations which are of particular interest to vets. In a least three ways the VA traditionally and consistently attempts to squeeze each and every penny (because there are more crucial ways for the government and the rich to spend their money--VA benefits make no profits) and, in the process, step on as many vets as possible. First, the VA doesn't tell vets about the regulations or problems--the effects of Agent Orange (see article on page 7) are the best current example where, when the demands of vets for compensation, testing and treatment are met, will cost the VA millions, even billons of bucks. Second, the administrators write the regulations to be as confusing as possible. Third, regulations spawn like rabbits, creating more and more regulations so that important items are often buried under a sea of paperwork. Unless vets have some idea of what, according to the regulations, we're entitled to, VA bureaucrats will always try to intimidate us with their "knowledge" and pull out of their ass some new rule or regulation.

For instance, hundreds of thousands of vets whose money has run out because their checks haven't come or there's some foul-up in paperwork, have been told by the VA "We'd like to help but checks have to come from Kansas City (or somewhere else that's a long ways away)." In fact, in every regional VA Office there's some functionary with the power to sign checks on the spot in emergency situations, though the VA will never get around to telling the vet about this bureaucrat. While the VA has, of course, the "power" according to regulations to determine what is and what is not an "emergency," vets who push through the red tape to get to this check-signer have often been able to get the money they need to survive until the VA check finally arrives.

• GI Bill Payments: For veterans who got to school year around, including summer school, checks should keep coming right through the break following the spring semester--IF the semester break is 30 days or less. For most schools, this requires either some sort of pre-registration (that is, you've already signed up for summer school) or willingness of the school certification officer (usually the "Vets Affairs Director") to certify, your enrollment."
• Advance Payment: Because even the VA realizes that vets cannot start school on no money, the newest version of the GI Bill does provide for advance payment ?2 months worth of the GI Bill payments at the beginning of a vets' first semester. But if you get the prepayment say, on the 1st of September, that means not check until the end of November (the prepayment covers the months of September and October and then you have to go to school through the month of November before you start getting paid again.) The old system paid in advance (which meant you got paid at the beginning of the month for the following month); it was thrown out when Congress got their bowels in an uproar around vets who were "cheating" on the GI Bill. They decided that no vet has "earned" the GI Bill until he or she has actually done their month in school.
• Carter's VA Budget: 3,132 beds in VA hospitals, are being cut (or will be cut) under the proposed new budget for the Veterans Administration. The overall budget from the Carter administration allocates $18.3 billion, down $190 million from last year. A big chunk of the money (and, given inflation, the cut is larger than it appears) comes from cuts in "readjustment benefits"--which means the GI Bill. Because of the 10-year eligibility (the "delimitation date") hundreds of thousands of veterans are losing their eligibility for the GI Bill whether or not they ever made use of it.
• Delimiting date: There has been a crack, though only a small one, in the 10 years of eligibility. A new regulation allows increased years of eligibility for vets who can prove that either physical or mental illness prevented them from using the GI Bill in the 10 year period now permitted.
• Carter's well-publicized "amnesty" program was a farce--moreover, vets saw it for the fraud it was, and very few took advantage of it: who wants to spend the rest of their lives hassling through the red tape involved?

After a big fight with congress, Carter finally signed another bill, one which has hardly been publicized at all; in fact, it's part of the restrictive new bill which includes refusing vets benefits to those who went through the first program. Of some interest to vets, however, is the provision in the new bill which allows veterans with general discharges for "behavior disorders"(which may mean almost anything) to get them upgraded to honorable. This new law covers 90 thousand plus vets and may be one of the easier ways for those vets to get their discharges upgraded. With the general outlook towards Vietnam vets the possibilities of such an upgrading program in the near future are small. For more information contact VVAW or talk to the nearest VA Regional Office; the bill involved is Public Law 95-126 which went into effect on March 31, 1978.