MilitaryTimes: VA tech glitch halts GI Bill payments to thousands, advocates say

Will Hubbard, the vice president for Veterans and Military Policy at the organization Veterans Education Success and an architect of the current “Forever GI Bill,” has been tracking the nonpayment issue closely since he was alerted to the problem by congressional staff.

“There’s been no mass communications plan; there’s no press release; there’s no public anything,” Hubbard said. “And that’s really been a fundamental issue.”

For Hubbard, the problem also fit a pattern of major VA platform or tech rollouts affecting GI Bill beneficiaries that took place right before the start of the fall semester, when enrollments were surging and tuition payments were coming due.

Hubbard wants assurances from VA that the rollout timing issue will be addressed for the future. He’s also concerned that the VA’s projected timeline for fixing the current problem is optimistic, and expressed concern about the “destabilizing” impacts of missing payments that roll into next semester.

“What I’m most worried about are the housing payment elements of this issue,” he said. “Because, you know, a school might be flexible, and I applaud that, but I suspect that landlords, their patience is going to run thin eventually. It’s bad, obviously, to get dropped from school, but it’s life changing if you’re put out on the street.”

Read the full article at MilitaryTimes here.

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