Senator Patty Murray continues fighting for veterans. Her office issued the following yesterday:
As Veterans Seek Relief from Mounting Housing and Education Expenses, Senator Murray, Colleagues Call For Increased Transparency and Action at VA to Process Delayed GI Bill Benefits
Led by Senator Murray, new letter to VA Secretary Robert Wilkie highlights impact of processing delays on veterans receiving GI Bill benefits
Senators request additional
information regarding the Department’s efforts to address the needs of
hundreds of thousands of veterans believed to be impacted by delay in
payments for education, housing
Senators: “We will not stop
pressing for information and action until every veteran receives the
benefits they earned in their service to our country”
NBC News: Veterans haven't received GI Bill benefits for months due to ongoing IT issues at VA – MORE HERE
(Washington, D.C.) – Led by U.S. Senator
Patty Murray (D-WA), top Democrat on the Senate education committee and
a senior member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, a group of
Democratic senators sent a letter
to Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Robert Wilkie urging
immediate action to address the severe backlog of living stipend and
tuition payments for veterans receiving Post 9/11 GI Bill benefits.
According to recent media reports,
on-going problems with VA’s IT system have resulted in many veterans
not receiving the living stipend and tuition payments they use to pay
for education and housing expenses in a timely manner, causing
significant financial strain and hardship for veterans attempting to use
the benefits they earned from their military service. Additionally, the
senators requested that the Department confirm it will not
retroactively collect overpayments to students resulting from other IT
issues.
“For many of our nation’s veterans, the
living stipend payments were expected by September 1, 2018, and the
multi-month delays create a real crisis to not only their long-term
education and career goals, but also their daily needs. Regardless of
what caused or is causing the delay, we believe it is imperative for VA
to address this issue with the urgency it deserves,” wrote the senators in the letter. “We
will not stop pressing for information and action until every veteran
receives the benefits they earned in their service to our country.”
“As a nation we have a responsibility to
be there for our veterans, and part of that duty involves fulfilling our
promise to ensure they have access to education after they leave the
service. These errors and delays undermine the intent of the GI Bill and
put unnecessary and avoidable strain on veterans and their families
during a critical time of transition,” the senators added.
It is believed hundreds of thousands of veterans
receiving GI Bill benefits have been impacted by VA’s processing
delays, including more than 82,000 veterans who were still waiting to
receive their housing payment as of November 8 according to VA data. In
addition to Senator Murray, Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Michael
F. Bennet (D-CO), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) also
joined the letter.
Full text of the letter is below and the PDF is available HERE.
November 13, 2018
The Honorable Robert Wilkie
Secretary of Veterans Affairs
810 Vermont Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20571
Dear Secretary Wilkie:
We are writing with significant concerns
regarding the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ processing delays for
veterans receiving Post 9/11 GI Bill benefits. For many of our nation’s
veterans, the living stipend payments were expected by September 1,
2018, and the multi-month delays create a real crisis to not only their
long-term education and career goals, but also their daily needs.
Regardless of what caused or is causing the delay, we believe it is
imperative for VA to address this issue with the urgency it deserves. We
will not stop pressing for information and action until every veteran
receives the benefits they earned in their service to our country.
The reported impact of these delayed benefits
is significant. Media reports suggest between 340,000 and 360,000
veterans have been receiving the incorrect amount of money for their
housing stipends due to ongoing information technology system failures
at VA.[1] Additionally, reporting from last month suggests there is a backlog of between 140,000 and 228,000 pending education claims.[2]
While we recognize that the policy for calculating Basic Allowance for
Housing was recently revised and the number of claims overall has
increased, these errors and corresponding delay are hurting veterans
around the country who depend on these benefits to get the education
they have earned. As of November 8, press reports citing VA data show
over 82,000 veterans were still waiting on housing payments.[3]
There is a serious risk of significant financial hardship or veterans
even becoming homeless if they do not receive these payments.
As a nation we have a responsibility to be
there for our veterans, and part of that duty involves fulfilling our
promise to ensure they have access to education after they leave the
service. These errors and delays undermine the intent of the GI Bill and
put unnecessary and avoidable strain on veterans and their families
during a critical time of transition.
We understand VA employees are working
overtime and with additional support to address this challenge, but
given the conflicting media accounts and the pressing nature of the
concern, we ask for the following essential information necessary to
conduct oversight on implementation of the GI Bill:
1. An update on the number of veterans
who are currently receiving the incorrect housing stipend amount, as
well as an update on the number of education claims pending.
2. The average wait time for payment of any education benefit claims, by type of claim.
3. The number of regular or contract
full-time equivalent (FTE) employees currently working to resolve the IT
failure, disaggregated by hiring authority.
4. The total number of FTEs receiving overtime pay for implementation, and the dollar amount of such overtime.
5. A detailed report on the origin of
the IT failures leading to processing delays, including when VA first
became aware of the issue.
6. An account of immediate steps being
taken to ensure those veterans for whom the housing stipend is most
essential—such as those with dependents or facing the risk of housing
insecurity or homelessness—are prioritized.
7. An account of why education claims
are backlogged at a significantly higher rate than last year, and a plan
for how VA will ensure this does not happen next year. Additionally,
VA’s education service has said processing times are higher in the fall –
since this is an entirely foreseeable issue, please describe what steps
VA takes each year to increase processing capacity so wait times do not
increase.
We request periodic updates on the figures in
questions one through four every two weeks until the problem is
resolved. VA must also provide Congress with the steps it will take to
ensure these issues never happen again.
Finally, we ask that VA publicly confirm on
its website that the agency will not retroactively collect overpayments
to students resulting from the IT failures. These errors are not our
veterans’ fault and any collection will add further disruption and
hardship to their education. [4]
We appreciate all you do to ensure we live up
to our duty to our veterans and hope to work with you and VA to ensure
this issue is addressed as soon as possible.
Sincerely,
Patty Murray
United States Senator
Richard Blumenthal
United States Senator
Michael F. Bennet
United States Senator
Sherrod Brown
United States Senator
