9/11 GI Bill Update
According to an article in the most recent Marine Corps Times it seems that there might be some disgruntled senior military members. It seems that to be eligible to transfer benefits of the 9/11 GI Bill to a spouse a military member must have 6 years active duty service and agree to 4 more years for a total of 10 years. To transfer benefits to a child or multiple dependents you will have to have at least 10 years service and agree to another 4 years.
Now here is the kicker if you do transfer those benefits but are unable to complete the 4 year service obligation that you incur because if it you could be forced to repay the amount used. With benefits expected to average $80,000 over 36 months (four years of college) that could mean a repayment of 20 grans for every year of benefits used. While the four year repayment won’t affect anyone with less than 16 years come Aug 1, 2009 (when it goes into effect) those military members approaching high year/tenure may have a problem.
High year/tenure is in place to force retirement of personel that are not getting promoted (IE a SSgt in the Marine Corps must retire when he gets 20 years of service MSgt’s can stay in for 26 years). So those SSgt’s that are at 17+ years and decide to pass their benefits on to a child or spouse but doesnot get promoted to Gunny would be on the hook for 60 grand potentially.
The new GI Bill is a great recruiting and retention tool. This Bill is also to honor those that have served in the military since 9/11. It would be a disgrace to freeze out those personnel that have spent almost 8 years serving their country since the devastation on that day that has led us into the war on terrorism. It is out duty to make sure that this doesn’t happen. Any Marine, soldier, sailor or airman that has served since 9/11 needs to be grandfathered in and no monies should have to be repaid if the service member cannot complete 4 years due to involuntary retirement. Call your Congressman and make sure that these military members are not excluded from this great bill.
Related posts:
January 8th, 2009 at 5:50 am
Does this part of the bill include those who have to be medically retired due to injuries received while fighting
the War on Terror?
Jarhead,
Please answer the question here in the comments.
January 8th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
I can see losing the benefit of transferring the GI-bill to a dependent but the service member would still be eligible for it to use him/herself. I would hope any pay back would be in the loss of months used by the dependent, dependent used 10 months the service member would have 26 months remaining.
The transferability of the 9/11 bill was added only for retention purposes after much wrangling and was not part of the original bill.
Great site btw
January 8th, 2009 at 6:22 pm
NCCM
I know that it was a retention tool but to leave out those that have served since 9/11 would be a mistake.
January 8th, 2009 at 8:10 pm
Jarhead,
Woke-up and followed the links to the explantion of what you were writing about. Guess the holidays made the brain very slow on the up-take.
*****
If anything ANY person who joins the Military whether it was before 9/11 or after they should be able to qualify or be grandfathered in for this benifit. To be forced to pay monies for ‘involuntary retirement’ is just plain wrong.
{Hell ‘involuntary retirement’ just sounds wrong. I not being Military do not understand why the Military would toss out a person with the years and experience that is needed in leading and instructioning the younger members.
I have read here in these blogs where you, Jarhead, have asked what happened to the mentors for the young Marines–this ‘involuntary retirement’ might be one of those reasons.}
The Military Brass along with the Members of Congress needs to get this right for the MEN and WOMEN who serve DESERVE everything that this Nation can provide to them for that service.
January 20th, 2009 at 9:41 pm
I’m hoping to get the 9-11 GI Bill set up for approval at my school (it’s in Europe) and that basically leads to a huge pain in the tail end. Even though I am eligible for the funds, until the school (which is a full university since 1918) gets approved I have no insurance that I can actually get the money. It will be an interesting summer trying to get everything situated. Yep, yet another stressor about the 9-11 GI Bill… and I’m not even trying to transfer it to my kid.
Jerry