Archive for April, 2010

Ashley I’m sorry, but you won’t be able to get educational benefits from either party and here is why.

To answer the first part of your question, it really depends on when your husband served. If his service was prior to September 10, 2001, then he has the Montgomery GI Bill and that didn’t have any transfer options. If his service was after September 10, 2001, then he has the Post 9/11 GI Bill, which does have a transfer option, but he would have had to transfer benefits to you before he was discharged.  Once he was out, he can’t transfer.

As far as your father’s Post 9/11 GI Bill, he should have transferred his benefits to you before you were married. If you already had his benefits and then got married, you could have kept the benefits.  Because you married first, you are not considered a “dependent” of his anymore by the Post 9/11 GI Bill rules and he can’t transfer to you.

Jeann, the Post 9/11 G.I. Bill pays according to the location of your school. If you want to go to school in AZ, the VA will pay up to the maximum in-state, public school, undergraduate program for AZ. At the time of this writing, that AZ amount is up to  $657.00 per credit hour and up to$15,000.59 for both tuition and fees per term. You didn’t state if you are a resident of CA or AZ.  If you are in CA, you may have to pay out-state tuition, unless AZ has a reciprocity agreement with CA.

Also, your Post 9/11 G.I. Bill housing allowance is based on the E-5-with-dependents rate for the zip code of your school. You can also expect to get up to $1,000 per academic year in a book stipend. Good luck with your school endeavor.

Whitney rest assured, the Tuition Assistance (TA) and the Post 9/11 G.I. Bill are completely different programs. TA is funded and managed by the individual branches of service, whereas the G.I. Bills are a VA responsibility.

There are couple of things to be aware of before you receive your husband’s Post 9/11 G.I. Bill education benefits.

First,your husband won’t be able to transfer his benefits to you until he has served six years and agrees to serve an additional four years.

Second, after you are married, be sure your information in DEERS is correct.  Your husband will use the TEB website to transfer benefits to you when he is eligible, but the TEB program uses the DEERS database as its database of record. You’ll know if your DEERS record is incorrect; your husband won’t be able to edit your record which is what he needs to do to transfer benefits.

Third, after your husband he makes the transfer request, you will have to keep checking your record on the TEB website and look for a status change to “Approved” and the date he made the transfer request in the date block.  Once you see the approved status, you can use your education benefit. You have until 15 years after your husband’s discharge date to use your benefit; after that, you’ll lose any unused benefit.

Also, keep in mind that while your husband is still serving, you won’t get paid the Post 9/11 G.I. Bill housing allowance; you would get that if you go to school after he is out.

And congratulations on your upcoming marriage!