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After pressure from Congress, VA reverses course and promises full benefits to veterans
After pressure from Congress, VA reverses course and promises full benefits to veterans
VA Secretary Robert Wilkie issued a statement saying that all student veterans would get their full monthly housing stipends under the Forever GI Bill rates.
Nov. 29, 2018 / 6:27 PM EST
By Phil McCausland
After a day of pressure from members of Congress, the Department of Veterans Affairs reversed course on Thursday and announced that it would pay veterans the full amount of benefits they are due under the Forever GI Bill.
On Wednesday, NBC News reported that VA officials privately told congressional staffers that they would not retroactively pay veterans whose checks were less than they were owed because of VA's ongoing computer problems.
Members of Congress from both parties sharply criticized VA for this potential policy during a hearing on Thursday, and late in the afternoon, VA Secretary Robert Wilkie issued a statement saying that the student veterans would get their full monthly housing stipends in accordance with the Forever GI Bill.
“Although VA has encountered issues with implementing the Forever GI Bill on Congress’ timeline, we will work with lawmakers to ensure that — once VA is in a position to process education claims in accordance with the new law — each and every beneficiary will receive retroactively the exact benefits to which they are entitled under that law,” Wilkie said in his statement.
In the hearing before the House Veterans Affairs Committee, Paul Lawrence, who oversees the Veterans Benefits Administration, was questioned by lawmakers on whether VA would retroactively pay veterans rates determined by the Forever GI Bill once the law is fully implemented in spring 2020.
Lawrence had said that going back to inspect potentially hundreds of thousands of education claims could be a “tremendous amount of activity for no gain.”
But Wilkie, his boss, later made it clear that position was changing.
more...
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/after-pressure-congress-va-reverses-course-promises-full-benefits-veterans-n941946?cid=sm_npd_nn_fb_ma
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