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VA rejects vet transfer in final GI Bill rules

The Veterans Affairs Department’s final rules for the Post-9/11 GI Bill remove some proposed restrictions on current service members sharing educational benefits with family members, but the regulations reject requests that the same transfer rights be given to veterans.

VA officials, who received many letters asking for veterans to have the same GI Bill transfer rights as current service members, said they could not allow veterans to share benefits with family members because transfer rights for the new benefits program are, by law, limited to people who are in the service Aug. 1, when the new GI Bill program begins.

Also rejected in the final rules: living stipends for people using the new GI Bill for distance learning; and special rules for veterans suffering traumatic brain injuries that would provide them full payments even if they are not full-time students.

For veterans who plan to attend private colleges or universities, the final rules revise procedures that could reduce tuition for some students under a matching fund program. Colleges or universities will have more flexibility in deciding which categories of students would be eligible for reduced tuition, which VA officials expect will encourage more institutions to participate.

The new GI Bill educational benefits program, which takes effect Aug. 1, features monthly benefits to fully cover the cost of tuition and fees at a four-year public college or university, plus a $1,000 annual book allowance and a monthly living stipend pegged to the cost of renting a two-bedroom townhouse in the same ZIP code as the campus.

Final rules also add commissioned officers of the Public Health Service and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to those eligible for the Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits.

Jurisdiction over the Post-9/11 GI Bill is divided between two agencies: VA is responsible for payment of benefits — tuition payments directly to the school, but stipends paid to the student; and the Defense Department is responsible for setting rules for how current service members will be able to share earned benefits with a spouse or children.

The VA is done with its part of the rule-making, but the Defense Department has yet to announce details on how service members will be able to transfer benefits, although some basic eligibility guidelines are established by law and by VA rules.

In three ways, the final VA rules set the stage for more generous policies involving the transfer of benefits.

• Kickers — the extra GI Bill benefits earned as enlistment bonuses by some recruits — can be transferred to a spouse or children along with basic benefits, VA officials said in the final rule.

• When benefits are transferred, a spouse’s divorce or a child’s marriage will not terminate benefits. This is a 180-degree change from rules proposed in December. Benefits can be transferred — if a service member meets eligibility rules, still to be announced — to a current spouse and to an unmarried child. A subsequent divorce from a spouse or marriage of a child does not automatically cancel benefits, although a service member can reduce or rescind the transfer of benefits at any time, without reason.

• A military spouse who earned GI Bill benefits in her own right, and used them, can also use transferred benefits. The only limitation is that only one GI Bill benefit may be used at a time.

While making transfer rights more liberal, the final rules make it clear that veterans’ educational benefits are not marital property that could be divided in a property settlement after divorce. The rules also clarify that the monthly living stipend — equal to the basic allowance for housing of an E-5 with dependents — will not be paid to the spouse of an active-duty service member, just as it will not be paid to a service member using the GI Bill while still in the service.