VA Catches Up on GI Housing Payments

Veterans attending college under the post-9/11 GI bill did not receive an increase in their basic housing allowance for the 2010 spring semester due to the clunky claims processing system that was in place until just this month.

The Veterans Affairs Department finished installing a shiny new claims processing system on Aug. 23, and Keith Wilson, director of the education service at VA, said the new system already has started processing and pumping out retroactive payments to 153,000 veterans who attended school in the spring semester.

VA had to pay housing allowances for the spring semester based on 2009 rates because the old claims processing system did not have a rate table for 2010, Wilson said,

He said the retroactive payments range from under a dollar a month to as much as $250 a month, depending on where a veteran attends college, with the average retroactive payment just under $100 a month.

A handy fact sheet posted by VA on its GI Bill website says the department started sending out retroactive payments on Wednesday as a lump sum payment covering Jan. 1, 2010, through July 31, 2010, with deposit expected in the first three weeks of September.

Wilson said the new system will automatically handle any change in 2011 housing allowances.