2009 Insider's Guide to the New G.I. Bill - Military Times EDGE

2009 Insider's Guide to the G.I. Bill

New from Military Times, the "Insider's Guide to the New GI Bill" is a comprehensive source for information on how to make this more generous - and more complicated - benefit of military service work for you. Click here to order your copy today, or read the exclusive excerpts we've included below

Chapter 1: Getting Started

The first and most important thing to figure out about the Post-9/11 GI Bill is whether you're eligible. And if you think you may want to share some or all of your earned benefits with your family, you need to know if they're eligible.

For service members and veterans, there are two bedrock requirements for Post-9/11 GI Bill eligibility: You must have qualifying active-duty service after Sept. 10, 2001, and you must not already have exhausted your full 36 months of veterans education benefits under the active-duty or reserve component Montgomery GI Bill.

For most people, the minimum requirement for eligibility is 90 days of active service after Sept. 10, 2001, not counting basic training and advanced training. The 90 days can be cumulative, not continuous, so National Guard and reserve members mobilized several times for short periods qualify for benefits.

There's one exception in which someone with less than 90 days of service may qualify: Those with at least 30 days of continuous service who are discharged for a service-connected disability.

Click here to order your copy and learn more about eligibility rules

Chapter 2: Tuition payments

Tuition payments, the core benefit of the Post-9/11 GI Bill, represent a substantial change from the Montgomery GI Bill, and actually reach back to the tradition of the World War II program in that they are set to cover the full actual costs of four years of college.

Two factors will determine your payment under the Post-9/11 GI Bill: What does your school charge in tuition and fees?  What percentage of benefits have you earned from your active service?

The new program promises to pay tuition plus mandatory fees for any accredited institution of higher learning, up to the cost charged for undergraduate studies at the most expensive four-year public college or university in the state where the student is enrolled.

Find out full details on tuition payment rates - click here to order

Chapter 3: Living stipend

One of the big reasons why the Post-9/11 GI Bill is such a major improvement over previous recent education benefits programs is the inclusion of a monthly living allowance on top of tuition.

For a veteran, especially one with a family, the extra monthly check could make a big difference in whether he can go to school full or part time, and probably improves the chances of getting a degree while using the GI Bill.

The average monthly living allowance will be $1,333 a month for fulltime students. The biggest downside to the allowance is that not everyone using the Post-9/11 GI Bill will get it.

Do you rate a living stipend? Order your GI Bill guide and find out

Chapter 7: Sharing benefits with family members

For military members who have families - or want someday to have families - there is no more significant aspect of the Post-9/11 GI Bill than the chance to share earned but unused education benefits with spouses and children.

Active, National Guard and reserve members who have Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits can transfer them to family members. Defense Department officials supported this, with restrictions, because they worried that the new GI Bill was so generous that people would leave service at the earliest opportunity to use it. The transfer rights option becomes one of the best reasons to remain in the military through at least 10 years of service.

Service members who earned the benefits have flexibility and control over sharing benefits. In terms of flexibility, you can transfer all or part of your unused GI Bill benefits to one person or several people, as long as you don't give away more than your 36 months of total earned benefits. You must transfer benefits in monthly increments, may not divide a monthly benefit among family members, and cannot change the division of benefits more than once a month.

In terms of control, you have final say over who uses the benefit. A transfer may be rescinded at any time and for any reason; the benefits always belong solely to the service member. GI Bill benefits are not marital property, so unlike military retired pay, they cannot be divided under court order during a divorce.

Give your family the gift of an education - our GI Bill guide tells you how

Chapter 12: Surviving children

Less than two months before the launch date of the Post-9/11 GI Bill, Congress created a new education benefit for the children of service members who die on active duty before they meet the time-in-service requirements to be eligible to transfer benefits to family members.

The survivor benefit is called the Fry Scholarship, named for Marine Gunnery Sgt. John David Fry, an explosive ordnance technician killed in Iraq in 2006, leaving behind a widow and three children who were under age 10 at the time.

The benefit makes the child of someone who dies on active duty eligible to use Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits to pay for college or vocational education, just like an eligible veteran. That includes tuition and fees, the living stipend and book allowance and other benefits of the Post-9/11 GI Bill, as long as the student meets other eligibility conditions.

Fry Scholarships are more generous in some ways than regular transferred benefits because surviving children have more years to use the benefits and each eligible surviving child gets an individual full-tuition scholarship, which means no one has to share benefits with siblings if the deceased service member had more than one child.

Learn more about the Fry Scholarship - order the GI Bill guide today