New GI Bill's latest glitch: Wrong living stipends from VA p1 - GI Bill Benefits - Tuition Assistance for the Military - Military Times EDGE

The newest problem with the Post-9/11 GI Bill: The Veterans Affairs Department has acknowledged paying the wrong rate of living stipend to everyone getting the benefit for the spring term.

Some veterans' payments are too big, others too small. Either way, the problem will not begin to be alleviated until July, when VA starts using a new automated claims processing system.

Those who are underpaid will receive retroactive payments to make up the difference. The overpaid are expected to have their overpayments waived, although it is unclear whether they'll have to apply for waivers.

The problem was discussed at an April 21 Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee hearing.

Many of the problems will be solved, officials said, once VA deploys a software system that can quickly make the complicated calculations required for accurate payments. Keith Wilson, VA's education service director, said a pilot version of the software is being used by about 16 claims workers now, with a second phase set to begin at the end of June. The fully automated claims system should be online by the end of the year.

Living stipend payments are incorrect because VA is still basing the monthly payments on 2009 rates for military housing allowances, rather than the 2010 rates that took effect Jan. 1. The old rates are being used because updating them would have taken months in the antiquated computer system VA now uses to process claims. Wilson said the new software being deployed in late June will allow the new rates to be part of the calculation.

Mark Anderson, a full-time student at Columbia College in Missouri who also attends the Army's Civilian Police Academy during the day, said he is losing $117 a month because the Post-9/11 GI Bill living stipend he is receiving is based on the 2009 rate for Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., rather than the 2010 rate.

"I contacted VA twice, and each time they said that the computers have not been updated to the new rates and they are unsure of when they will [be]," said Anderson, a retired sergeant first class.

Afghanistan veteran Marco Reininger, a student at Columbia University in New York who testified at the Senate hearing on behalf of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said problems with the living stipend add to distrust of the new benefit.

"I know if I owed VA money, which I do, they would certainly be in quite a hurry to collect, which they are. But when VA owes me money, I cannot seem to get any answers," he said.

Reininger owes money to VA because of problems that surfaced with living stipends last fall. As VA labored to get the new GI Bill off the ground, it was forced to issue $3,000 advance payments - money it is now struggling to recoup from veterans.