The Checks Aren't in the Mail

Last week, when we celebrated Veterans Day, I heard from student veterans at Boston College, George Mason University and George Washington University that they had not yet received their post-9/11 GI bill stipend checks from the Veterans Affairs Department.

No stipend checks means no cash for rent or food, these student vets told me, though George Washington deserves credit for making loans to its student veterans left penniless. But one wonders how long GW will continue to act as a bank.

These anecdotal reports are backed up by VA statistics. The Nov. 16 Monday Morning Workload Report from the Veterans Benefit Administration shows that VBA had 64,452 post-9/11 GI bill claims pending, down only 263 claims, or 0.4 percent, from last week's 64,715 claims.

The claims are part of an even larger pile of all GI bill claims, which includes the older and less generous Montgomery GI bill, which stood at 211,327, down about 7 percent from the 226,817 claims a week ago.

VA hired ACS Federal in October to help it process what it called the "unprecedented" backlog of post-9/11 GI bill claims.

Will the temporary assistance help whittle down the pending claims to zero by next month? Or, will student vets go into the holiday season with no stipend checks for another month? Good questions, which I have a hard time getting VA to answer.