GI Bill Kink Sends Vets To Brink

The new G.I Bill, which went into effect August 1st, was to cover college expenses for all veterans who served in the military since 9/11. However, when nearly 300,000 vets signed up, the veterans department, with its antiquated technology, flopped. Just 20,000 of those applications have been paid out to the colleges of their choice as of this date. Everyone else has been waiting 10 weeks or more, and many will wait longer than that.

Many vets quit their paltry jobs that they got after arriving back home- often disability keeping them from lucrative work they once filled-and went out on the lamb and went back to school. They assumed the government would pay for their tuition, their bills, and their college expenses as they promised. Veterans had expected to begin receiving assistance for housing, books and other expenses by Sept. 1 have to pay out of their own pockets. They have depleted savings, personal loans, and fallen down the slippery slope of debt because of the government’s fiscal and technological failures.

Some have already considered quitting school-which they will not get refunded for, and return to the grisly unemployment sector grappling for a job.

Keith Wilson, the department’s education service director, said the veterans department had prepared for the expected tide of applications by hiring 750 claims processors. However, the increase in human preparedness didn’t compensate for the technological preparedness, which is sorely lacking. The department is developing a computer system that will make those calculations automatically, but the system will not be available until late next year, Mr. Wilson said.

Vets facing financial doom don’t take comfort or have sympathy for the department’s lack of effectiveness and problems.

In a surprising turn of events, the department desperately began distributing benefits checks recently that had been filled out by hand to compensate for the problem. Not surprisingly, that sent up alarm bells at banks. Let’s just say the department was a buck short and a day late! Thousands upon thousands would like to even get a hand written check if possible.

The department has distributed roughly $70 million in emergency checks since Friday of last week. VA is authorizing payment for about 3,000 students per day. However, irreparable damage has already been executed for tens of thousands who gambled their savings away in education that never materialized. Those victims had to return to the workforce empty handed and devastated that they couldn’t provide for their families adequately and for many, in a dignified manner. For those disabled vets who couldn’t find hope in better education, their losses are unequivocal. They must succumb to jobs most people will not take. Fine appreciation for those who gave so much for our freedoms and security!

In a slightly more positive light, the VA announced yesterday that it will distribute $17 million in grants to community groups in 19 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico to help provide shelter for homeless veterans. The department operates the largest network of homeless assistance programs in the nation and estimates it spent $2.8 billion to provide health care and specialized homeless programs last fiscal year. That’s good to know since so many more vets will be homeless now that the GI Bill has plundered into bottomless insanity!

Temporary measures have been set up to help those vets who are still in school and are financially able to continue going until they receive their funding from the VA. On October 2nd, 57 regional benefits offices began providing on-the-spot emergency payments up to $3,000 to students who have applied for their education benefits but who have not yet received a government payment.

That’s great news, but falls quite short of what our veterans deserve after such huge sacrifices. This cuts very deep for me because, as you already know, my father fought in Vietnam. Though he never got a purple heart he earned one by contracting a disease caused by Agent Orange, a disease that recently has been diagnosed as terminal. He is now on Hospice.

My questions are this. How much do we spend on illegal immigrants? How much do we spend on corporations that are doomed to fail? The veterans didn’t demand this money, they were promised this money and the government knew long in advance about this Bill and how popular it would likely be. This is a great indication of how the health care reform will work!

Benefits, which are transferable to a veteran's spouse or children, can be applied to vocational-technical, undergraduate, or graduate programs. Tuition and living allowances vary by state. The bill is projected to cost $62 billion over 10 years, according to the VA.

It’s little compensation for a life, an arm, a leg, a broken mind and heart. A complete stranger died or was seriously hurt defending your rights. How about supporting our troops America? How about not taking your freedom for granted?