Coming Soon: Veterans Affairs Announces Advance Pay Re-Coupment

On January 23, 2010, the VA's Website announced that the organization will start collecting the advance payments that were sent to veterans using the Post-9/11 GI Bill during the fall 2009 term. These advance payments were issued to help veterans who applied for benefits and were awaiting payment due to a vast backlog of applications the VA was struggling to process.

According to the VA, at the beginning of the fall 2009 term, approximately 2,000 applications were being processed daily; today, over 8,000 are processed. As of January 22, 2009, the VA processed 102,000 out of the 132,000 applications received for the spring term. As time goes on, the processing of Post-9/11 GI Bill applications appears to be looking like it will keep getting better.

The Collection Process

Some veterans should have already received a letter from the VA explaining how the collection process will work. Just how painful it turns out to be depends on how much the VA decides to take back on a monthly basis. If a New GI Bill recipient doesn’t have excess money in his or her monthly budget, he or she would be advised to start planning how to offset for the smaller monthly payments once the payback begins.

Many veterans are angry at how the VA handles claims, but it’s important to remember that Secretary Shinseki and his staff are working to do the best they can within their resource limitations. Processing the New GI Bill claims takes three times as long as processing MGIB claims—and all of this is being done without additional resources. It’s important to remain patient while the VA continues to work through issues and improve service to veterans.

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