****VR&E (Chapter 31) Benefit Extensions Due to COVID-19****

[BC_89]

VR&E Benefit Extensions for Student Veterans

content.govdelivery.com

An update has been put out by the Student Veteran Coronavirus Response Act of 2020. It is worth looking into if you fall within the category of being effected by COVID-19 with credits and housing. The covered period is from March 1, 2020 until December 21, 2020

Below is a letter - copy of the hyperlink:



Dear VR&E Participant,

With the enactment of the Student Veteran Coronavirus Response Act of 2020, (Public Law 116-140) the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has been granted the authority to extend certain laws for students who had been pursuing Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (VR&E) benefits. The covered period is from March 1, 2020 until December 21, 2020.

This letter informs you that Public Law 116-140, grants the following extensions:

• Extension of the 18-Month Limitation on Employment Services
  • If a claimant is unable to participate in a program of employment services due to the emergency situation with COVID-19, the 18-month limitation on employment services will not apply during the covered period.
• Extension of the 12-Year Eligibility Period
  • The eligibility period will not run if a claimant is prevented from participating in his or her rehabilitation program during the covered period due to the emergency situation with COVID-19.
• Continuation of Subsistence Allowance (SA) for Temporary Closures
  • If the claimant is enrolled in a program or course of education at an educational institution that is temporarily closed by reason of the emergency situation with COVID-19, or the program or course of education is suspended by reason of the emergency situation with COVID-19, during the covered period, SA payments may continue for up to four weeks. Entitlement may be restored in this circumstance.
• Continuation of Subsistence Allowance (SA) for Permanent Closures
  • If a facility permanently closes or a course of study is disapproved during the covered period, SA payments may continue until either the end of the term in which the closure or disapproval occurs, or 120 days from the date of the closure or disapproval, whichever occurs first. Entitlement may be restored in this circumstance.
• Restoration of Entitlement
  • If a claimant is unable to complete a course or program of education because of any of the reasons listed below during the covered period, the VR&E staff must restore entitlement used during the term(s) impacted:
    • The education institution closed, either on a temporary or permanent basis; or
    • A course was disapproved for some reason; or
    • The individual did not receive credit; and
    • The individual lost training time toward completion of the program
• Additional Payments of Employment Adjustment Allowance (EAA)
  • Two additional payments of EAA during the covered period if certain criteria are met:
    • The claimant must be satisfactorily following a program of employment services during the covered period.
    • The payment must apply to dates during the covered period, March 1, 2020 to December 21, 2020.

If you have questions about your VR&E benefits, please contact your local Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor (VRC), local Regional Benefits Office, or visit VA.gov | Veterans Affairs.

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[workingfarmer]

Not trying to revive an old forum but I do have a specific question about my Ch. 33 benefits. I currently in a private school w. Ch 33 benefits and luckily they also provide Yellow Ribbon to match the rest of the amount. However, I am in my last year of school and my rotations have begun in the summer (May & June) but due to the VA year starting on AUG my VA advisor is letting me know that I might not get my summer classes covered (two months in the summer). My school charges me for my rotations in form of Fall & Spring semester only. However, the way the VA submission is made is not based on how the business office charges me but based on my ACTUAL school schedule. I hope that makes sense if not I can clarify more for some more insight. Is that how the VA submission work? I am trying to verify this situation or if there is anything that I might be missing here because from the looks of it I will be getting my roations that fall from AUG 2020 to APR 2021 covered since I am still full time but not my summer classes which are 8 credit hours of two monthly rotations?

 

[BC_89]

My school charges me for my rotations in form of Fall & Spring semester only. However, the way the VA submission is made is not based on how the business office charges me but based on my ACTUAL school schedule. I hope that makes sense if not I can clarify more for some more insight. Is that how the VA submission work?

In order for Chapter 33 Benefits to be properly paid out, the VA submission will always be based off of your academic schedule and fulltime student status as put out by your program and not necessarily how the business office bills your student account. The easier way to look at it is seeing how much housing coverage you receive each month during and between semesters. For example if your fall semester starts August 15th and Ends December 15th, you will only receive coverage for half of august and half of December deposited into your account. Now, if your rotations are listed only between two semesters out of the year according to your schools academic calendar, then it is as if you never attended school for the remainder of the year. In your case, its as if APPEs only exist over two semesters not every 6 week cycle out of the given year.

If you want to consider adjusting the pay-out to cover summer rotations (and the correlated BAH), you will want to find out what the program considers full time status during your 6-week rotations. Have them put in writing what qualifies as fulltime status if you are doing rotations before and after the advertised Fall/Spring semester. When the Assistant Dean and/or Education Department puts out exactly the timeframes you are considered a "student" during the year, file the copy (notarize it at a bank if you want to make it more official) to your certifying official and cc your VA counselor so as to count those months as part of your benefit package.

Be sure you are not burning to quickly your months-worth of benefits by stretching out your student coverage to more months than allotted by the Post 9/11 GI Bill. During this pandemic they are trying to run the Chapter 33 & 31 Benefits similarly during this eventful year.

 

[workingfarmer]

In order for Chapter 33 Benefits to be properly paid out, the VA submission will always be based off of your academic schedule and fulltime student status as put out by your program and not necessarily how the business office bills your student account. The easier way to look at it is seeing how much housing coverage you receive each month during and between semesters. For example if your fall semester starts August 15th and Ends December 15th, you will only receive coverage for half of august and half of December deposited into your account. Now, if your rotations are listed only between two semesters out of the year according to your schools academic calendar, then it is as if you never attended school for the remainder of the year. In your case, its as if APPEs only exist over two semesters not every 6 week cycle out of the given year.

If you want to consider adjusting the pay-out to cover summer rotations (and the correlated BAH), you will want to find out what the program considers full time status during your 6-week rotations. Have them put in writing what qualifies as fulltime status if you are doing rotations before and after the advertised Fall/Spring semester. When the Assistant Dean and/or Education Department puts out exactly the timeframes you are considered a "student" during the year, file the copy (notarize it at a bank if you want to make it more official) to your certifying official and cc your VA counselor so as to count those months as part of your benefit package.

Be sure you are not burning to quickly your months-worth of benefits by stretching out your student coverage to more months than allotted by the Post 9/11 GI Bill. During this pandemic they are trying to run the Chapter 33 & 31 Benefits similarly during this eventful year.

Considering I do get a letter stating that I am full-time during the summer & Fall period my VA official is dividing up the amount alloted towards each of the rotations? This means I might have to take out loans to cover for the end of the semester rotations? Or maybe I am not understanding even a possibly worse outcome where the VA thinks I have gone to school for May and June so I just get the BAH for those two months, but no tuition because the business office does not charge me tuition for those two rotations. Then they just pay for my Aug rotations and not my October one? I did not think I was going to run into an issue with this during rotation year!