The Post-9/11 GI Bill may help several OU students pay for school, as it includes a provision which allows service members to transfer their education benefits to their dependent children, husbands or wives.
“This has been one of the most requested benefits from our field and fleet, for some time,” said Eileen Lainez, Department of Defense spokeswoman. “From family advocacy groups, people have been asking for this for a long time.”
The program is designed to benefit current active-duty, or selected reserve, military personnel and encourages service members to remain in the military at least four additional years. To be eligible to pass benefits on, a service member must have six years of service on or after Aug. 1, and agree to serve at least four more years. At least 90 days of those six years of active service must be after Sept. 11, 2001 for eligibility. In order to receive a 100 percent tuition and fee reimbursement, he or she must have three years of post-9/11 service.
Lainez said the additional service commitment runs concurrently with any remaining obligation a service member may have. For example, a service member with two years remaining on his or her commitment would only extend that obligation for four total years, not six.
Service members who can’t add four years to their service because of military policy would be eligible if they have given 10 years of service, including the minimum post-9/11 duty. Additionally, those planning to retire between Aug. 1, 2009 and Aug. 1, 2013 will not have to offer additional service, but must give at least 20 years of service.
Although benefit transfers can’t occur until Aug. 1, members of the military that are interested in determining eligibility or beginning the application process can do so now by visiting dmdc.osd.mil.
Patricia Ingram, veterans student services coordinator at OU, encouraged military members to visit the Web site now to begin the process. She estimates that receiving eligibility confirmation from the Department of Defense could take 6-8 weeks. From there, the student receiving the transfer will need to apply for benefits with at the Department of Veterans’ Affairs Web site, gibill.va.gov.
Additionally, if the student has been processed by the Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration, Ingram said that OU will not submit a bill to the VA until after the Sept. 4 add/drop deadline.
“If a student is in an expensive class and they drop that class, and they add a less-expensive one, they’ve already created an overpayment for that semester, and there is tons of paperwork, plus the student may have to pay that money back,” she said.
Students that are waiting for the Department of Defense and VA to process their eligibility and enrollment shouldn’t panic when they begin receiving bills from OU, Ingram said.
“I have spoken with the Bursar’s office, [Housing and Food Services] and Financial Aid,” she said. “They were all very agreeable to the fact that as long as we know that these students are in process [they won’t be penalized].”
Ingram did say that students may see late fees on their bills, but as long as the benefits are still being processed, those fees will be removed upon request.
All of that poses some hurdles for a student that wants to claim these benefits, but the payoff is significant. If the military member is eligible for full Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits, that allows him or her to pass three years of full in-state tuition and fees, a book stipend and, for a child receiving the benefit, a monthly housing allowance. In Norman, the housing allowance is $954 each month. Spouses are not eligible for the housing benefit.
Even partial eligibility can be significant. Master Sgt. Lloyd Williams has been in the Air Force Reserves since he graduated from Norman High School in 1977. In 2003, the Air Force called him up to nine months of active duty in Oman. That service entitles him to 50 percent of the GI Bill benefits a service member with three years of post-9/11 service would receive. He plans to pass those benefits to his daughter, Sheena, who will attend OU this fall.
“It kind of started coming down to crunch time,” he said. “Where we were just going to have to pay out of what we’ve saved, to try to pay for [college]. Then this has come along, and it’s made it so much more doable. It won’t be near the burden it would have been.”
Who can transfer benefits?
First, service member or veteran who wishes to transfer their benefits must otherwise be eligible for the Post-9/11 GI Bill. Eligibility requires:
90 days of aggregate service after September 11, 2001 OR
30 days of aggregate service after September 11, 2001 and an honorable discharge for a service-connected disability.*
Service members that have separated must have received an honorable discharge to be eligible for the Post-9/11 GI Bill.
Service members must either be active duty or in the Selected Reserve
Second, to be able to transfer benefits under the Post-9/11 GI Bill, a service member must:
Have at least six years of service when he or she applies to transfer benefits and must agree to serve four more years after applying to transfer benefits OR
Have at least 10 years of service and be precluded by policy or law from serving four more years. In such a case, a service member must agree to serve for as long as he or she is eligible OR
Become retirement eligible between Aug. 1, 2009 and Aug 1, 2013. Additional service of up to three years will be required, however, for service members that have a retirement date after July 1, 2010.
Who can receive transferred benefits?
Service member’s spouse
One or more of the service member’s children
Benefits can be divided between eligible children and spouses
Recipients must be enrolled in the Defense Eligibility Enrollment Reporting System (DEERS) and otherwise eligible for benefits at the time of the transfer of benefits
For more information:
gibill.va.gov
defenselink.mil/home/features/2009/0409_gibill/
Patricia Ingram, Veterans Student Services Coordinator at OU, 325-4308
Service members that wish to check eligibility to transfer benefits can visit dmdc.osd.mil.
*To receive 100 percent tuition and fee reimbursement, a service member must give three years of active service after Sept. 11, 2001. A service member with 90 days of service after Sept. 11, 2001 would receive a 40 percent reimbursement, with additional service receiving incremental benefits.
Sources: Dept. of Veterans’ Affairs, Dept. of Defense, OU Veterans Student Services Coordinator
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jbrightb 2 years, 10 months ago
If the military member is eligible they can transfer FOUR years of full in-state tuition, etc. Full benefits are for 36 months...however the military counts months based on an academic year. Therefore, with a Summer break the academic year is only 9 months...so, four years of benefits.
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