GI Bill Alert: Do You Need To File A New Claim To Win The Rudisill Decision Entitlement Bump?

Veterans have anxiously awaited news about how the agency would adjudicate millions of dollars in potential GI Bill benefits following a landmark Supreme Court Rudisill Decision last year.

Finally, in an invite-only meeting, VA has begun to disclose more to veteran service organizations on how it plans to adjudicate the claims and how long the agency plans to take to complete the process. That, and it unveiled an informational website to help veterans learn more.

The good news is VA promises to start processing most of the GI Bill claims where the veteran may be entitled to extra GI Bill benefits after Rudisill. The bad news is nearly 400,000 will still be required to file a new claim using a required form to get their claim for additional months of entitlement adjudicated.

This article tells you which veterans fall into which camp, and it provides detailed frequently asked questions section straight from VA… So take the FAQ with some skepticism. We cover:

• Who will need to file a formal GI Bill claim
• What form is required to file the claim
• Where to submit the form (it’s electronic)
• When you should consider filing the claim (it may not be right away)
• What the deadline is to claim the additional benefits

Recent GI Bill Program Announcement

Yesterday, we provided a critical review of VA’s public affairs spin on policy changes the Supreme Court decision forced the agency to implement. That same day, VA held a veteran service officer meeting to explain in greater detail how the agency will implement the changes.

I was able to provide many of you with the information conveyed in that meeting. Let’s hope it helps reduce some of the anxiety many veterans in the middle of financing their educations are wondering.

At a high level, the changes will mainly impact veterans who were forced to choose between using the Post 9/11 GI Bill (PGIB) and the earlier Montgomery GI Bill (MGIB).

For over a decade, VA forced veterans to choose between the MGIB they paid for versus the better superior PGIB. Many veterans chose the latter, but they did not receive a refund of the money paid for the MGIB, and they could not use the other version after depleting the option they chose.

You could not use both GI Bills, said VA.

Last year, the Supreme Court decided otherwise, and now over a million veterans may be eligible for tens of thousands in additional education benefits through up to 12 additional months of GI Bill benefits.

READ: VA’s Dedicated Rudisill Decision Page

Who May Be Impacted

According to VA, veterans who served under more than one period of service who also paid into the MGIB and after served during the period when PGIB was implemented may be eligible for additional months.

VA provides a potential decision tree explaining it this way.

Qualifying:

• Reenlistments. Service can be continuous. There is no requirement for a break in service.
• Changes in service, i.e., serving an enlisted period in the Army and then enlisting and serving in the Navy.
• Being recalled back to active duty from the Inactive Ready Reserve.

Does Not Qualify

• Enlistment extensions or stop losses are not considered multiple periods of service.

There will likely be exceptions for certain veterans, so checking with VA will be important. If you get a decision or answer from VA that does not make sense, you may need to seek legal counsel from a reputable VA-accredited attorney who handles Education Benefits claims.

That said, potentially impacted individuals include approximately 1.04m beneficiaries with at least two qualifying periods of service-one period that qualifies for MGIB and a second that qualifies for PGIB-where the beneficiary waived all or part of their MGIB benefits so they could use PGIB benefits.

Of the potentially impacted beneficiaries, approximately 4,000 are VR&E beneficiaries who did not have PGIB benefits while participating in VR&E, were paid the standard VR&E subsistence allowance rate, and may now be eligible to have those previous subsistence allowance awards amended to receive the higher PGIB rate as a result of the Rudisill Decision.

Veteran presently using VR&E benefits should have their entitlement to PGIB evaluated under Rudisill automatically.

Among the beneficiaries potentially impacted, VA asserts it not have the authority to extend delimiting dates for MGIB – Selected Reserve (Chapter 1606) beneficiaries therefore not all potential beneficiaries will qualify for a delimiting date extension.

There are elements of who is impacted and how the agency interprets its authority may see legal challenges as the agency starts to implement its policies based on its interpretation of the SCOTUS decision.

IMPORTANT: Veterans Who Must File A New GI Bill Claim

The bad news here is VA is only automatically helping and contacting two-thirds of the veterans impacted by the new legal framework.

That means over 379,000 estimated veterans will need to become aware of the impact of this decision and file a claim on their own to get help.

GI Bill Claims Before 08/15/2018

For potentially impacted beneficiaries who have had an education claim decision before August 15, 2018, VA will review and determine their education benefit eligibility only after they submit a claim.

That is correct. You must submit a claim on the required form to initiate the process if you had a benefits claim prior to August 15, 2018.

Once VA has received and evaluated their claim, the agency will adjudicate and the veteran will receive an official decision. These requests must be received prior to October 1, 2030.

How To Apply For GI Bill Benefits

In order to apply for GI Bill education benefits or to change the benefits, you will need to fill out the VA Form 22-1995. The form can be filled out on VA.gov.

Review of each application normally takes up to 30 days as of this writing.

For Rudisill Decision claims, the amount of time to process will likely take a lot longer for the group of veterans needing to manually apply for their own claims. VA likely views these cases as not as high a priority compared to veterans actively in training.

When To Apply – Important

When to apply is all about the delimiting date and understanding how yours will be calculated.

VA encourages beneficiaries to apply when they are ready to use their benefits, because the date of application filing may affect their benefits new expiration date, if approved. Applying too soon may start the new expiration date clock and prevent them from using their additional benefits in time.

This is majorly important for many veterans trying to use the benefit for a professional school like an MBA or Law School where the training does not start for another year. Be very careful when you apply. Applying too early may result in the entitlement lapsing before your training starts, costing you thousands in lost benefits.

VA has explained how the agency will calculate the delimiting date for these older claims.

They will use the date when the veteran was forced to make the decision between the two benefits. From that date, let’s say January 1, 2015, the agency will then calculate how much time will be added based on your then delimiting date. Let’s say you have 5 years left, or January 1, 2020, to use the GI Bill or lose it.

In this example, VA would give you 5 years to use the new GI Bill entitlement plus 90 days.

It will be vital to be strategic when considering when to file the GI Bill claim. VA advises waiting until you are closer to the start date for any training you plan to use the GI Bill to fund.

Veterans With VA Help – No Claim Needed

GI Bill Claims On Or After 08/15/2018

VA must first determine if a Rudisill Veteran is eligible for additional GIB, before VA is able to determine if an increase in the VR&E subsistence allowance rate can be paid. VA estimates this number to be 660,000.

For the 660,000 potentially impacted beneficiaries who have had an education claim decision on or after August 15, 2018, VA will review and determine their education benefit eligibility without the beneficiary taking any action.

• VA anticipates completing these records reviews within approximately 22 months.
Existing Veterans Claims Examiners at the Regional Processing Offices will complete these reviews during non-peak enrollment periods.
• Due to the number of the reviews and VA’s estimated completion timeline, VA has prioritized the reviews based on how recently a beneficiary attended school and how much, if any, GIB entitlement a beneficiary has remaining. Additionally, potentially impacted active VR&E participants have been prioritized.

Rudisill Decision – GI Bill Frequently Asked Questions

This Q&A is directly from VA. Let us know if it covers your questions in the comment section.

Q. How is VA notifying Veterans who may have been impacted by these changes?

A. VA is distributing communications to potentially impacted Veterans.

If you believe you may have been impacted by these changes but did not receive an email from VA, refer to the eligibility section of this webpage for further guidance or contact us.

Q. Will I be able to transfer the additional benefits to my spouse, dependents, or survivors?

A. Your eligibility to transfer benefits to your spouse, dependents, or survivors will not be impacted by this decision. Existing Transfer of Entitlement requirements and limitations of use apply to any additional PGIB benefits you might receive because of the Court’s decision.

For example, if you have previously transferred PGIB benefits to a dependent and wish to transfer the additional PGIB entitlement, you must follow the existing instructions for changing your transferred benefits.

If you are not on Active Duty and were not approved to transfer of benefits while still on Active Duty, the Court’s decision will not make you eligible to do so.

Learn about PGIB Transfer of Entitlement eligibility.

Note: The Department of Defense decides whether you can transfer GI Bill benefits to your family. VA does not have the authority to change or waive the eligibility requirements, age cap, or other limitations related to Transfer of Entitlement.

Q. Will I be given a new delimiting date?

A. For eligible Veterans who previously had to forfeit their additional benefits in order to use their PGIB, VA will recalculate their benefit expiration date and provide them any return time after the election was made to use the benefit. The new expiration will be calculated by adding the time a Veteran had left when they previously forfeited their benefit to 90 days plus the date of issuance of the new Certificate of Eligibility (COE).

Example: A Veteran forfeited their MGIB benefits on January 1, 2016. At the time the Veteran had seven years remaining, before their MGIB benefits expired on January 1, 2023. The Veteran is approved by VA for reinstated MGIB eligibility on January 1, 2025 (new COE date). The seven years the Veteran had remaining before their benefits would have expired is added to the date of their new COE, plus an additional 90 days: January 1, 2025, + 90 days + seven years or March 31, 2032, is the adjusted expiration date.

Q. Can I waive my MGIB benefits to receive a refund of my $1,200 MGIB contribution and PGIB kicker payments?

A. Yes, you can still voluntarily elect to waive your MGIB benefits and receive PGIB kicker payments and a refund of your $1,200 MGIB contribution. 

Q. I was told I had to waive my MGIB benefits to use PGIB benefits even though I had two periods of service. Can I revoke that decision and use MGIB? Do I have to pay back the $1,200 refund?

A. Yes, if you were previously required to make an election to waive MGIB even though you have two periods of qualifying service, VA will revoke prior elections. However, if a revocation will result in a reduction to your current benefit payment amount, you will be given the choice whether you wish to revoke your election (reducing your current benefit payment amount) or retain your election (maintaining your current benefits payment amount). 

If you received a refund of the $1,200 contribution, you will not be required to pay it back.

Q. I waived MGIB or MGIB-SR benefits to receive a kicker under my PGIB benefits. Because of the Court’s decision, can I revoke that decision and get back my MGIB or MGIB-SR? If so, do I have to pay back the kicker?

A. Yes, you can revoke your decision to waive MGIB or MGIB-SR benefits. However, you are only eligible for your kicker payments if you voluntarily waive MGIB or MGIB-SR benefits. If you revoke your waiver, you may get extra months of MGIB or MGIB-SR but you will lose your MGIB or MGIB-SR kicker payments under PGIB.

You will not be required to pay back any kicker payments you have already received, but any remaining kicker entitlement will be paid under your remaining MGIB or MGIB-SR benefits.

Q. Do I have to submit my request for a decision by a certain date?

A. A Veteran can submit a claim at any time. However, there is a limited period of time for a Veteran to receive a delimiting (expiration) date recalculation. The deadline to submit a claim is October 1, 2030. After October 1, 2030, a Veteran can still submit a claim for benefits; however, the normal delimiting date calculation rules will apply.

Q. Does this affect my Veteran Readiness & Employment benefits?

A. Veterans who are currently participating or were previously participating on or after August 15, 2018, in the Veteran Readiness & Employment (VR&E) program and did not have eligibility to Post-9/11 GI Bill (PGIB) benefits when they elected which subsistence allowance they wanted to receive (Chapter 31 or PGIB rate), but have since been granted retroactive PGIB benefits, may now be eligible to receive the basic allowance for housing (BAH) subsistence rate.

The BAH subsistence rate is often higher than the standard Chapter 31 rate. If a Veteran is granted retroactive PGIB entitlement, VR&E will automatically adjust the rate and pay the difference, if the PGIB rate is more beneficial to the Veteran.

Q. I have a question that is not addressed. Where can I get more help?

A. Beneficiaries with questions about their GI Bill benefits may submit inquiries through Ask VA. To use Ask VA, beneficiaries must have an authenticated VA account.