September 28, 2009 - While supportive of providing $3,000 emergency payments to students waiting on their Post-9/11 GI Bill education benefits, lawmakers are not pleased the Veterans Affairs Department was forced into this situation by delayed claims.

By the VA's count, about 27,500 students had received book allowances and living stipends as of last Friday and about 25,000 payments were pending. Some veterans organizations think the backlog of claims is much larger, noting that 277,000 veterans have submitted as least preliminary claims to determine their level of eligibility for the new benefits program that promises payments for tuition and fees plus a monthly living stipend and an annual $1,000 book allowance.

VA officials said details on how to get the $3,000 will be announced later this week.

Buyer said Monday that he, like other lawmakers, "heard reports of veterans taking out personal loans to pay for books and living expenses due to extended processing times" and thinks the decision to provide advance payments was "doing what the situation requires."

"The current situation was foreseeable and could have been prevented," said Rep. Steve Buyer of Indiana, ranking Republican on the House Veterans' Affairs Committee who said VA never asked for additional resources, and in five hearings leading up to the Aug. 1 launch of the new benefits plan was constantly optimistic about making on-time payments.

The lawmakers who held those hearings - Rep. Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin, D-S.D., and Rep. John Boozman, R-Ark. - raised similar points in a letter last week to Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki, noting that VA officials had told lawmakers it would take about 24 days to process claims and that necessary claims examiners were expected to be hired and training by Aug. 21.

VA officials now say it is taking about 35 days to process a claim, but they have picked up the pace. Last week, the VA was completing about 2,400 claims a day, according to information posted on its website. On Friday, it completed about 3,400, an increase that is partly the result of mandatory overtime for claims processors.

Herseth-Sandlin is the chairwoman and Boozman is ranking Republican on the veterans' economic opportunity subcommittee, which has jurisdiction over the GI Bill.

Their letter, written before the VA announced the $3,000 advance payments, raises concerns that the claims-processing problem may be much bigger than 10 additional days to process a claim.

It says the VA expected to receive about 526,000 claims for all types of veterans educational benefits but has received about 854,000. And, they are worried that delays appear to be not just in issuing eligibility certificates, a complicated process for benefits based on months of active service since Sept. 11, 2001, but also in enrollment certification, according to information provided by institutions of higher learning.

VA officials said last week that the 35-day processing time for claims may slightly increase before getting better because of the start of fall terms, but they have not asked Congress for additional claims examiners or other resources.

Army Times