VA Reimbursement for National, Licensing, and Certification Exams

If you are a student veteran or beneficiary, you may have heard that veteran education benefits will reimburse you for certain exams, but do you know how the program works? It’s a little tricky, and for most students, the entitlement cost and hassle is more than the benefit is worth. Read on to learn more, and decide if this benefit is right for you….

 

Calculating Entitlement Use

Once you start claiming VA educational benefits, you start burning them up.  Sooner or later, you may get concerned about how long those benefits will last, and how to manage what remains.  The key to budgeting your benefits is understanding how the VA calculates “entitlement use.”

All VA beneficiaries are awarded a set number of months of benefit entitlement, usually 36 months for most forms of the GI Bill, or 45 months for the Chapter 35 Survivors and Dependents’ educational assistance program.  VA Vocational Rehabilitation is a completely different type of program and the initial entitlement might vary, but the concept of “entitlement use” is the same.

It is important to realize that your entitlement is not based on calendar months, but rather payment months.  Thirty-six months of benefits is not the same as three years, because the 36 months do not have to be consecutive, and you don’t get paid for the breaks between terms or time that you take off.

That’s really important, so let me say it again: your entitlement is not based on calendar months.

Think of it like money in a bank.  If you go to school and claim your benefits, the VA will pay you out of that entitlement “account” until you stop attending or use it all up.  When you are on break between terms, or if you stop going to school for a while, the VA stops paying you, and you aren’t using up any of your entitlement.  Your remaining entitlement will just sit there until you are ready to start using it again, or until it expires (your “delimiting date”).

Taking a Break from Classes

No matter how carefully you plan ahead, there may come a point in your educational career when you decide that you need to take a break, for any number of valid reasons.  You may have been called back into active-duty service.  You may need time to take care of a family member, recover

from an illness or injury, buy a house, get married, or have a baby.  Sometimes people have to face an unexpected crisis or disaster, and need time to deal with it.  Perhaps you are in the process of changing your academic goal or career focus and need a little time to sort through your options.  Sometimes people get stressed out or overwhelmed, and just need a change of scenery for a while.  Whatever the reason, sometimes you may just need to take a break.

Before you do, make sure you understand all the rules and implications of your decision, to avoid any unpleasant surprises.  Here are a few things to check when you’re thinking of taking a semester or two off:

Surviving a Government Shutdown on VA Benefits

As of this writing, President Obama signed a bill to temporarily suspend the budget debate and get the federal government back to work.  However, even if the VA processors get back up and running immediately, there may still be a delay in benefit processing as they work to clear through the backlog that has built up over the past few weeks.  So, veterans would be well advised to expect a delay next month, and budget accordingly.

Whether a delay is attributed to a government shutdown, technological glitch, missing paperwork, a processing error, or other issue, it's important to have a back up plan to ensure that you can continue your studies while working though the delay.  Here are some resources to help you put your contingency plan together:

Calculating Pro-Rated Housing Payments

The provisions of all of the various forms of GI Bill benefits include a monthly allowance, which is intended for you to use for your educational expenses, or housing while you're in school.  The payment amounts vary considerably according which GI Bill program you're using, as well as a number of other factors.  But, once you've gotten it all figured out and started attending classes, you'd expect that your allowance would be the same every month, right?

Wrong.

Thanks to Public Law 111-377, which went into effect on August 1, 2011, the monthly allowance benefit is pro-rated at the beginning and ending of every academic term, and no longer pays for breaks between terms.  This means that you won't be getting the posted benefit rate every month. Since students are often on a tight budget, it helps to know in advance how much your monthly payments will be.  This article will tell you how you can calculate your monthly payments yourself, so you know what to expect when payday comes around.

VA Stipend for Books and Supplies

If you're using the Post-9/11 GI Bill, you are eligible for a stipend for books and supplies. The stipend is capped at $1,000 per year, but your payment amount actually depends on how many units or credits you're enrolled in. The payment and the cap are also pro-rated according to your eligibility tier.

Here's the formula: $41.67 x number of credits x your eligibility tier = book stipend, not to exceed $1,000 per academic year.

Showing "Proof" of your GI BIll Housing Allowance

When student veterans are apartment-hunting, they often find themselves having to show "proof" of their GI Bill housing allowance. The best supporting document: your enrollment and payment verification letter.

What letter, you ask?

At the start of each academic term, once your VA enrollment certification has been submitted and processed, the VA mails you a letter that verifies the information that the school submitted on your behalf, including the start and end of the term, how many credits you're enrolled in and your net tuition and fee charges. You should always double-check these numbers to make sure they are correct, and let your school certifying official know if there are any discrepancies.

The letter also says how much the VA will pay you in tuition/fee benefits, book & supply stipend, and monthly housing allowance until the end of the term, and then tells you how much entitlement you will have remaining when the term is over.

Your term verification letter is an important document that you should file carefully - don't just toss it aside. If you haven't been getting your letters, call the VA - you might need to update your mailing address.