Olympic College students feeling the pinch from delayed GI Bill benefit payments
Student veterans across the country have been left in the lurch as the Department of Veterans Affairs works to sift through a backlog of GI Bill payments, including a number of students at Olympic College who are still waiting for their benefits payout a month after the start of the new school year.
Sean Delaire, a full-time student studying organizational leadership, has been waiting weeks for his stipend to process, although classes started on Sept. 17.
For the most part, he's been able to stay afloat while he waits for his benefits to arrive.
"Luckily, I have money to pay my rent, but I still have other bills that are going to come calling soon," he said. '"I haven't been able to buy my books, so now I'm struggling to do my assignments. Some teachers are receptive to it, and some teachers are like 'Well, figure it out, man.'"
The GI Bill provides student veterans with tuition coverage, as well as a monthly housing stipend and a yearly stipend for books and supplies.
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Delaire, a Bremerton native, served in the Marine Corps from 2007 to 2011. He's also the co-founder of Left Right Straight, a Bremerton-based nonprofit that seeks to foster a sense of community for veterans through outdoor activities.
The financial hardship caused by the delayed payments has started to take a mental toll on veterans who are worried about making ends meet, Delaire said.
"It affects their mood, their disposition because they're worried about having a roof over their head," he said. "It's just setting people up to fail and they shouldn't have to worry about that as veterans. They're going to school to further their education, to contribute the community and they shouldn't have to worry if they're going to get paid by the GI Bill."
The VA has been working to process an unusually high number of pending claims this fall as a result of the slow rollout of policy changes made to the GI Bill under the Harry W. Colmery Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2017, known as the Forever GI Bill.
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The VA currently has to process some 140,000 claims for students across the country, which is almost 50 percent higher than the amount it processed at this time last year, according to an email from Veterans Affairs.
Although the delays have been caused by a number of factors, the VA has run into a few roadblocks in implementing a change to how monthly housing stipends are calculated, which has had a direct impact on getting checks out on time.
Under the new law, students are now supposed to be paid the Basic Allowance for Housing rates for the area where they physically attend classes, such as at a satellite campus in a different town, rather than based off the location of their school's main campus.
Although that change was supposed to go into effect on Aug. 1, that deadline passed without implementation of the new policy after the VA experienced problems updating its computer systems. As a result, many of the students who have received their benefits this fall have been paid out at their old housing stipend rates.
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As of Oct. 19, the VA estimates first-time applicants are currently experiencing an average wait time of 33 days to receive their stipends, and those re-enrolling in their benefits are having to wait about 24 days for their claims to be processed.
"We've seen delays before, but not to this extent," said Casey Reed, director of Military and Veteran Programs at Olympic College. "This quarter, the impact is larger than we've seen before."
To get through the backlog, VA employees are working mandatory overtime with the help of 200 additional employees to process the claims. On average, they're able to process some 16,000 claims a day with the extra hours and workforce, according to an email from Veterans Affairs.
Despite recent gains in getting through stacks of claims, the VA anticipates having to work through a higher volume of pending payments for the rest of the year. Under normal circumstances, the VA aims to process re-applications for benefits in 14 days and new claims in 28 days.
A real impact to students
In the past, Reed said it was common for payment to a student's bank account to be delayed about a week after the start of school. But a month into the fall quarter this year, there are still a number of students waiting to receive their stipends.
Out of 920 veterans studying at Olympic College, about 650 are using benefits from the GI Bill to attend classes. About 25 of those students have not yet received their monthly housing allowance or their monthly tuition stipend, said OC spokesman Shawn Devine.
"The financial impact on these students is real," Reed said. "Some are in jeopardy of losing their home or their rental. Some have had to decide whether to buy books or get groceries for the week. They're worried about making their childcare payments."
Olympic College has worked with each of the impacted students to make sure they stay enrolled in classes and get the resources they need to stay afloat in the interim until their payments post, Reed said.
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In some cases, that meant processing pending financial aid awards a bit ahead of schedule, helping students borrow needed textbooks from the lending library or donating a bus pass.
Veteran Daniel Jose, owner of the Cascadia Strength and Conditioning gym in downtown Bremerton, is currently working on finishing up some prerequisite coursework for Olympic College's physical therapy assistant program. He served in the Air Force from 2004 to 2014.
He had to wait three weeks before he finally received his benefits, which affected his ability to get through his classwork since he wasn't able to purchase needed course materials.
"I didn't have the book for two weeks of the class, and it definitely impacted my studies," he said. "I didn't have the materials I needed. I know my study style, and I need to have something in front of me."
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When the money didn't show up for a few weeks, he felt the pinch outside of the classroom as well.
"I built the benefits I was going to get in my budget," Jose said. "I own a brick-and-mortar small business, and my margins aren't very big, so I have to budget almost everything."
Jose estimates he had to pay about $60 worth of late payment fees for bills he had to push down the road as he waited for the deposit to show up in his bank account for "small stuff that added up."
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For some of the larger bills coming due, he said he found many local businesses were flexible and understanding.
"I was super upfront about it. I wasn't coy or beating around the bush. I'm willing to pay the late fee, that's on me," he said. "They were more than willing to work with me."
For others who don't have a safety net, Delaire said there's a number of resources in the community available to help student veterans get along until they receive their payments.
The VA said students experiencing a "genuine hardship" from the delays can call their customer service number at 888-442-4551 for assistance.
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Kitsap Community Resources runs a veteran assistance program under contract with the Kitsap County Veterans Program to provide veterans in need with emergency financial assistance for things like rent, utilities, food and transportation costs.
The federal Department of Veterans Affairs and the Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs also have programs to provide financial assistance to veterans who might be in imminent danger of being evicted.
For those in the community who might be waiting for payment from someone waiting for their benefits to arrive, Delaire asked for a bit of patience and understanding while things get sorted out.
"Know it's not their fault," he said. "If you're waiting for payment from a veteran, it really isn't the veteran's fault they're not paying you, because they're relying on the GI Bill to fulfill its end of the agreement, and it's not."