Message on Recoupment of Emergency GI Bill Payments from Student Veterans of America

February 10, 2010

TO: Student veterans and school administrators,
Student Veterans of America has worked closely with the VA over the last
year in monitoring the implementation of the Post 9/11 GI Bill, ensuring that your
voice was heard and your education came first. Today, we want to update you on
the recoupment of the emergency payments so that you are well informed and can
make the best decision for you and your family.

Last semester the implementation of the Post 9/11 GI Bill was quite difficult
for a number of student veterans and their families due to the delay in receiving
tuition, book, and housing benefits. In light of the problems that the VA was having
in issuing payments, the VA began issuing advanced payments on October 2nd
through both their website and local Regional Offices.

A total of 122,392 payments were made in a sum of $355.4 million dollars for
all educational programs. These payments were an advance of money that was part
of an individual veteran’s benefit package, and were never intended to be a grant
program. Recipients were required to acknowledge that they understood that the
payment must be repaid and that the money would be recouped from a future VA
Benefit payment.

The VA has now ended the Advanced Payment program, and will begin
recouping the funding that was distributed. They began sending out letters to all
recipients the week of January 25th, and another round of letters will be sent
between now and February 19th from the VA Debt Management Center providing
options for reimbursing the VA for the advanced payments. If a veteran does not
contact the Debt Management Center within 30 days, the VA will deduct $750
from monthly housing payments beginning April 1st, 2010 and for the next four
months.

What you should do:
• First, make sure that you received all of your owed payments for the Fall
2009 Semester. Compare the funds you received with what you believe you should
have gotten, including books, housing, and enlistment kicker payments. Remember,
no money was held because of the advanced payment in the Fall 2009 semester, so
you should be fully paid up. If you have a question about any payment, or do not
believe you have been paid in full, please call the VA at 1.888.GIBILL.1 or email
us at gibill@studentveterans.org
• If you received an advanced payment from the VA, examine your finances for
the next few months, and what you anticipate receiving from the VA, and decide if
you can afford to have $750 taken from four months of payments. If the answer is
yes, you need not do anything.
• If you received an advanced payment and cannot afford $750 to be taken
from your monthly payments, it is imperative that you contact the VA and arrange
an alternate payment plan. Note that the VA has indicated that all $3000 will be
recouped within one year.
• Contact your School Certifying Official to discuss the accuracy of your
payments, as well as other financial options that may be available to you.
• The recoupment of advanced payments will not affect tuition and fee
payments to your school.
• If, at any time in this process or in the future, you are not able to reach the
VA, you receive inaccurate information, or you feel that you have not been paid
properly, do not hesitate to contact SVA at gibill@studentveterans.org
Please feel free to contact me at any time if you are having issues, or you would
like to get involve with SVA’s Legislative efforts.

Very Respectfully,
Brian Hawthorne
Legislative Director
brian.hawthorne@studentveterans.org

Veterans Needs Assessment Survey

The VA is requesting input from veterans to identify what they view their most critical needs are so that they can better serve them. This data will be used to help the department better address the identified needs.

Visit the VA website: wwww.cdva.ca.gov, review the Governor’s message and complete the Veterans’ Needs Assessment survey online.

The survey can be submitted online or downloaded and mailed to CDVA, c/o Veterans Services Department, 1227 O Street, Sac., Ca. 95814 In completing the survey, veterans are not required to identify themselves. As the survey indicates, email addresses will not be shared with anyone outside of the department. The data received in for departmental use and will not be shared.