Our Press Release: GI Bill Payment Delays During Government Shutdown

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Ana Cobian, Ward Circle Strategies: 323-360-1827 ana.cobian@wardcirclestrategies.com

 GI Bill Payments Missing, Leaving Student Veterans & Survivors of Service Members in Limbo for School & Housing
Veterans advocate calls for GI Benefits Hotline
to Be Turned Back on as an Essential Service

 WASHINGTON, D.C. (October 2025) — Veterans Education Success, a veterans advocacy non-profit, is sounding the alarm as reports emerge from across the country that GI Bill® students—especially military survivors using Chapter 35 benefits—are not receiving expected tuition payments. Veterans’ and Survivors’ benefits payments – including for the GI Bill – are supposed to be distributed as normal, even during a government shutdown.

While the reason for the missing payments has not been publicly explained, VA has informally responded to a limited number of the inquiries it has received from Congressional staff during the shutdown, indicating it is aware of the delays, and citing, as the cause, complications in a new enrollment verification process introduced as part of its overall transition to a Digital GI Bill platform.

Compounding current communication challenges, VA halted non-essential services at the beginning of the government shutdown, and has included the GI Bill Hotline as a non-essential service. As such, nobody is available at VA to answer calls from student veterans, survivors, and schools who are confused and concerned about the missing payments for tuition and housing. Veterans Education Success is calling for the GI Bill hotline to be staffed and answered as an essential service during the shutdown.

The disruption in GI Bill payments is already being felt. School officials have reported the problem to Elevate Vets and other advocacy organizations. Capitol Hill staff working on veterans’ issues have raised concerns on behalf of their constituents to VA, but no public answers have been forthcoming from VA officials so far.

“This is real money and real stress for veterans and their families… not a simple bureaucratic hiccup,” said Will Hubbard, Vice President for Veterans and Military Policy at Veterans Education Success. “Students are waking up to find their tuition unpaid, or facing housing uncertainty because their stipends didn’t arrive. Especially during a shutdown, these essential benefits should be protected—not left in limbo. We urge the VA and Congress to act immediately to ensure continuity of support for all GI Bill recipients.”

Veterans Education Success is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to work on a bipartisan basis to advance higher education success for veterans, service members, and military families and to protect the integrity and promise of the GI Bill and other federal postsecondary education programs. The organization offers free help, advice, and college and career counseling to veterans using the GI Bill and helps them participate in their democracy by engaging with policymakers. Veterans Education Success also provides non-partisan policy expertise to federal and state policymakers and conducts non-partisan research on issues of concern to student veterans. Additional information is available at vetsedsuccess.org.

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