Military update: VA vows new GI Bill payments to begin on schedule

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Military update: VA vows new GI Bill payments to begin on schedule
By Tom Philpott
Mideast edition, Friday, October 24, 2008

The new Post-9/11 GI Bill, which on average will double the value of education benefits for eligible veterans, will be launched on schedule next August and begin making payments to students and colleges next fall, just as Congress intended, says a senior Department of Veterans Affairs official.

Keith M. Wilson, director of education service for the Veterans Benefits Administration, told Military Update Wednesday that concerns expressed by some lawmakers and veterans’ service organizations that the new GI Bill might not start Aug. 1, 2009, as the law requires, are unfounded.

However, Wilson said, payments will have to be processed manually, as occurs now with Montgomery GI Bill and other education benefit claims, because an automated processing system won’t be ready for two more years.

Only last month VA officials had assured Congress they continued to pursue a strategy to have Post-9/11 GI Bill claims handled by a private contractor who would deploy a modern claim processing system based on industry-standard technologies and “minimal human intervention.”

On Oct. 10, the VA announced that it will have to “rely upon its own workforce to set up the information technology programs needed to implement the educational benefits of the new Post-9/11 GI Bill.”


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=58345