tHe New “Forever gi BiLL” – wHat it meaNS For veteraNS
Military & Veterans Affairs Committee
Chairs: Alexandra Srsic – Bay Area Legal Services, Inc. & David Veenstra - Hunter Law, P.A.
Now eligible
servicemembers can
access these [Forever
gi Bill] benefits any time
W
after active duty.
ith the passage
of the Harry W.
Colmery Veterans
Educational
Assistance Act, otherwise known
as the “Forever GI Bill,” lawyers
advising active duty service
members, veterans, and members
of the National Guard or
Reserves on these benefits should
become familiar with these recent
changes, as well as where to direct
servicemembers and veterans to
for assistance.
Passed in August 2017 as Pub.
L. 115-48, the Forever GI Bill
updated and expanded benefits
available to our nation’s service -
members under the Post 9-11
GI Bill, which itself expanded
the Vietnam-era Montgomery
GI Bill. 1 Perhaps the biggest and
most far-reaching change in the
new law, hence the title “Forever
GI Bill,” is the elimination of the
Post 9-11 GI Bill’s requirement
that servicemembers “use or lose”
their benefits within 15 years of
the servicemember’s discharge or
release from active duty.
Now, eligible servicemembers can
access these benefits any time after
active duty. Additional changes that
became effective last August include:
assistance for students affected by
school closures; the ability to use
benefits toward a Non-Institution of
Higher Learning for post-secondary
on-line education and post-secondary
vocational institutions; the ability for
reservists to credit as service toward
the Post 9-11 GI Bill any of their
Reserve Educational Assistance
Program eligibility lost because
of the program’s sunset; and the
removal of the expiration date for
qualifying work studies.
In August 2018, a number of
new benefits will become available.
These benefits include: the ability
to transfer entitlements to another
dependent if the original dependent
dies or if the veteran dies; the
dependent who received a
transferred benefit can designate
a new eligible dependent of the
veteran to receive the benefit;
modifications to the housing
allowance calculated based on
the zip code where the student
physically attends the majority
of classes; additional benefits for
Science, Technology, Engineering
and Math programs; modifications
to the Yellow Ribbon Program; and
expanded eligibility guidelines for
Guard and Reserve Members. Also
on August 1, 2018, servicemembers
who were awarded a Purple Heart
on or after September 11, 2001, will
receive 100 percent of the available
Post 9-11 GI Bill benefits for up
to 36 months, regardless of how
long they served on active duty.
Continued on page 49
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48
SUMMER 2018
|
HCBA LAWYER