Veterans' GI Bill benefits delayed

Many veterans attending ACC have found it difficult to pay for books, rent and tuition this semester. Distribution of GI Bill benefits by the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) has been delayed and many ACC student veterans, as well as student veterans across the country, have yet to receive the money they are entitled to. ACC has been doing what it can to help those veterans. Tuition payments for veterans who are still waiting on their benefits have been put in a shelter so that they will not be dropped for non-payment.

To try and alleviate the problem, the VA began handing out emergency checks of up to $3,000 this month to student veterans who are still waiting for the GI Bill benefits to be approved. Veterans can apply for the check online and receive a check in the mail, or they can drive to the Waco or Houston VA office to pick up the check in person.

"Unfortunately there are a lot of guys for whom this is their sole income. They planned on coming back to school, and they banked on receiving this money. Their rent and all of that stuff doesn't stop just because they are not getting money," said Randall Luce, an Army veteran and ACC student.

Luce is a work study in the ACC office of veteran affairs, and he has talked to and helped many of the veterans coming through the office wondering when their money would come in. The emergency checks have come in just in time said Luce. "If (the VA) hadn't come out with (the emergency checks), I really think a lot of people would have had to drop out."

"We knew this was coming. We all knew this was going to be an issue," said Mark Harden, the manager for veterans affairs at ACC. Harden has been working continuously since the start of the fall semester getting veterans registered with the school and all the appropriate paperwork sent to the VA office. He says the increase in student veterans, the popularity of the new Post 9/11 GI Bill, and an overwhelmed VA have led to the delay in benefits.

"I've had a lot of calls from students distressed. What I've tried to do is provide them what I knew," said Harden.

This is the first semester the new Post 9/11 GI Bill has been an option for veterans. The new benefits package pays tuition directly to the school and then gives veterans the money they need for books and a monthly housing allowance. To qualify for the new bill, a veteran must have served at least 90 days of active duty beginning on or after Sep. 11, 2001. However many student veterans have yet to receive their benefits.

ACC student and Navy veteran Sean Saenger has been waiting for his Post 9/11 GI Bill benefits to come in since the start of the semester in August. Saenger served in the Navy from 2003 to 2007 and then worked at various odd jobs before enrolling at ACC. "I decided to go back to school because it was the original plan seven years ago, and because I was in between jobs, and I needed the money (from the GI Bill)," said Saenger.

"They were supposed have our first check at the end of August, which turned into mid-September, which turned into end of September, which has now turned into Nov. 1," said Saenger of the delays. "Obviously none of us budgeted for that."

To get by, Saenger has had to borrow money from his parents and his girlfriend. On Oct. 14, he drove up to Waco and got one of the emergency checks and was able to start paying them back. Saenger, and many other veterans in the same position, have been going weekly to the Riverside campus office of Terry Cotton, Veteran Affairs Specialist at ACC.

"The new GI Bill, it's a sweeter deal…and the vets are coming home, so more vets are using this resource. Plus with the economy, even the ones that may not have thought about using their benefits, but now are out of work, realize that, ‘hey I've got this GI bill that I can fall back on,'" said Cotton of the reasons for the high number of veterans applying for the new GI Bill. Cotton is now advising the veterans that qualify to sign up for the emergency $3,000 checks.

In a press release, VA Secretary and Retired Army Gen. Eric K. Shinseki explained that distributing the emergency checks was an extraordinary action, "but it's necessary because we recognize the hardships some of our Veterans face."