Change would ease GI Bill transfers to children - Air Force News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Air Force Times

Change would ease GI Bill transfers to children

Service members would have more flexibility to share Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits with their children under a House bill introduced on Wednesday.

The bill, HR 5737, would remove a restriction that benefits must be transferred before the child is age 23. It would not change a restriction under which children may use transferred benefits only until age 26.

Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Wis., is the bill’s sponsor.

In a statement, Moore said she could find “no valid policy reason” for requiring benefits to be transferred by age 23. The effect of the policy has been to prevent people from sharing a few years or months of benefits with a child who is between the age of 23 and 26, she said.

“This gap was brought to my attention by a constituent, a veteran of multiple wars, who tried to transfer his Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits to his daughter only to be blocked by the age limitation,” Moore said. “I can only imagine his disappointment.’

Moore’s bill was referred to the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, which expects to prepare a package of changes in GI Bill benefits later this year. Because her bill doesn’t provide new benefits, just changes the time frame in which benefits may be transferred, congressional aides said it is a low-cost or no-cost proposal that could more easily find its way into a larger package of changes than many other ideas for improving benefits.

The Post-9/11 GI Bill’s rules allow spouses or children of service members to use transferred benefits in return for the member’s promise to remain in the military. Benefits can be transferred to a spouse after six years of service and to children after 10 years of service, with the member required to sign an obligation to serve four more years.

The requirement for additional service has been waived or reduced for people who will retire from the military before 2014 under a policy intended to ensure people at the end of their military careers are not cut out of a benefit that only became available on Aug. 1, 2009.