The Defense Department announced yesterday its policy for transferring educational benefits to the spouses and children of service members under the Post 9/11 GI Bill, which takes effect Aug. 1, 2009.
Career service members on active duty or in the selected reserve on Aug. 1, 2009, and who are eligible for the Post 9/11 GI Bill may be entitled to transfer all or a portion of their education entitlement to one or more family members. To be eligible, service members must have served in the Armed Forces for at least six years, and agree to serve four additional years, from the date of election to transfer.
Service members with at least 10 years of service, who by DoD or service policy are prevented from committing to four additional years, may transfer their benefits provided they commit for the maximum amount of time allowed by such policy or statute.
Temporary rules have been developed for service members eligible to retire between Aug. 1, 2009 and Aug. 1, 2012. Depending on their retirement eligibility date, these service members will commit to one to three additional years, from the date of election to transfer.
Service members can elect the transfer of their benefits online starting June 29. The Web address, which is not yet active, will be https://www.dmdc.osd.mil/TEB/.
The guidance just released refers to the transferability of benefits provisions in the original Post-9/11 GI Bill. The 2009 Supplemental Appropriations bill, which is now awaiting signature by President Obama, extends transferability further, allowing children to use Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits that could have been transferred to them if their military parent had lived. Until now, the VA has had to tell children of troops killed in Iraq that they're not eligible for G.I. Bill benefits because their father or mother did not serve long enough before they died.
The extended VA benefits to children of fallen soldiers that would take effect upon signing of the Supplemental Appropriations Bill is in addition to the new grant authorized in the HEA Technical Amendments Bill (H.R. 1777), which is also on its way to the WHite House for signature. The 2008 Higher Education Opportunity Act made children of soldiers killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars since 2001, who qualify for Pell Grants, eligible for the maximum Pell award ($5,350 for the 2008-9 school year). H.R. 1777 provides a comparable grant of the same size as the maximum Pell award to survivors whose incomes do not make them are not eligible for Pell Grants. As a result, these children will be eligible for more than $20,000 in grants for college over four years.
Posted 06/25/09 to www.NASFAA.org. Redistribution to non-NASFAA institutions is prohibited. Please submit Web site questions or comments to Web@NASFAA.org.
