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SOLDIERS WITHOUT BENEFITS -- Seven lost their homes.

Twenty-one had to get their food from local charities. Eight

dropped out of college. Last fall they were students. All

were waiting for VA benefits that were too late.

 

 

Story here... http://media.www.marshallpart
henon.com/media/storage/paper534/ne
ws/2007/07/12/News/Soliders.W
ithout.Benefits-2923101.shtml

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Soldiers without benefits

By: Sandy Savage

Seven soldiers lost their homes. Twenty-one soldiers had to get their food from local charities. Eight soldiers dropped out of college. Last fall they were students at Marshall University. All were waiting for Veterans' Affairs benefits that were too late.

Soldiers serving in America's armed forces are supposed to receive VA educational benefits. The most common of these are the Montgomery GI Bill for active duty and the GI Bill Selected Reserve for National Guard and reserve soldiers.

The GI Bill pays a monthly stipend to help soldiers offset the cost of living while attending school.

"We have more veteran students in this university as of now than any other university in the state," Corwlyn Payne, the veteran certification specialist at Marshall University, said.

He is handling 624 cases, and those don't include the 700-800 veteran students who don't qualify for VA benefits. These soldiers paid into the GI Bill but aren't getting any money back.

Soldiers coming home from active duty are married with kids or divorced after being deployed so much, Payne said. They have to get jobs and can't go to school immediately.

The Department of Defense has a 10-year deadline on using active duty benefits and by the time these soldiers can use them, it's too late, Payne said.

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) has introduced the Montgomery GI Bill for Life Act of 2007. If passed, the bill would repeal the 10-year deadline for active duty and the 14-year deadline for the guard and reserve. Rep. Rick Larson (D-Wash.) introduced an identical bill in the House.

VA reports show "nearly 30 percent of eligible veterans are unable to use any of their educational benefits and most eligible veterans are only able to access a portion of the GI Bill before the 10-year limit is reached," according to an article on Military.com

Payne says most of the soldiers joining the National Guard do it for the educational benefits. They are coming home from deployments and getting out to go to school. Then they find out they aren't qualified for their benefits.

"Once you take the uniform off, you don't have the benefits," Payne said.

Cantwell's bill does not address the fact that Guard and Reserve soldiers lose their benefits if they are no longer actively drilling with their units.

"I've got a lot of individual cases where soldiers were mistreated by the Guard," Payne said.

Recruiters are telling soldiers they can get their benefits if they re-enlist. However, the VA says, "Once you leave the Guard or Reserve, your benefits end."

"I've got two Congressional and one Senatorial investigation underway," Payne said. At the same time, he said he's also talking a couple of soldiers out of investigations.

"They were miscommunications and not anyone's fault."

In a letter Payne said he wrote two months ago to Major General Allan Tackett, commanding general for West Virginia National Guard, Payne said he volunteered to teach a class on VA benefits to soldiers at every National Guard unit in West Virginia. He said he hasn't received a response.

However, Sergeant Major Michael Nelson, with the Recruiting Battalion for the West Virginia Army National Guard, invited Payne three weeks ago to Camp Dawson in Kingwood, W.Va.

Nelson wants Payne to teach recruiters about VA benefits, but a date is not scheduled. This will help keep recruiters from giving the wrong information to new recruits, Payne said.

"We do a lot of outreach with the VA," Lieutenant Colonel Mike Cadel, public affairs officer for West Virginia National Guard said.

The West Virginia Army National Guard invited the VA to be at family day this August to answer questions and register soldiers and their families for benefits.

"In fiscal year 2006, over $122 million in benefits was paid to over 66,000 Selected Reserve members," Keith Wilson, director of education service for the Veterans Administration, said to the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity in March 2007.

This is an average of $1,848 per person to cover the rising cost of living, textbooks and tuition.

"In 2006, VA received more than 261,000 MGIB-SR claims," Wilson said.

As of Feb. 2007, claims for reservist benefits have gone up 27 percent from Feb. 2006. The VA is becoming more backlogged, causing claims to be delayed.

Currently, with every claim, a letter is mailed which reads as follows:

"It is our sincere desire to decide your case promptly. However, as we have a great number of claims, action on yours may be delayed."

According to the Department of Defense, from 1986 to 2006, 1.5 million Selected Reserve members gained eligibility for MGIB-SR benefits and only 42 percent have applied for educational assistance.

Because the VA is backlogged and only 42 percent have applied, some are questioning what will happen if every soldier qualified actually received their benefits.

"The main problem is lack of knowledge," Jessica Roop, a specialist with the 151 Military Police Battalion out of Dunbar, W.Va., said. "They don't know what the heck to do."

"I couldn't afford to keep a home and go to school," Roop said. While in school, Roop received $309 a month from the GI Bill and an extra $200 a month for being in a critically needed job for the Army-supply. She still could not pay bills, feed her two daughters and go to school. Something had to be cut and for soldiers, that is school.

"They don't provide daycare, the cost of books, it's just too much," Roop said. "I know two that had to drop classes and request a deployment because they were losing their homes."

Timothy Taylor is a member of the West Virginia Army National Guard and a student at Marshall University. He can be contacted at taylor144@marshall.edu.

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Larry Scott  --