A GI Bill Wrong From the Pentagon Benefit restrictions that kick in after 16 years of service. By Maria Biery
https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-gi-bill-wrong-from-the-pentagon-15319529
Donald Trump promised in his victory speech that he would “finally take care of our great veterans.” He took a step in the right direction last year by signing the Forever GI Bill, which lifts the time limit on veterans’ educational benefits and makes it easier to transfer benefits to dependents. But the Defense Department took a step in the wrong direction last week, prohibiting members of the armed forces who have been in the service for more than 16 years from transferring their GI Bill benefits to dependents.
The new rule is meant “to more closely align the transferability benefit with its purpose as a recruiting and retention incentive,” the Pentagon explained in a statement. The idea is that people who’ve served for 16 years have already shown a propensity to stay and therefore don’t need an incentive.
After six years of service, members can transfer their GI Bill benefits to a spouse or child—under the condition that they commit to serve at least four more years. After 10 years, service members can still cash in on the benefit, subject to the requirement only that they “serve for the maximum amount of time allowed by such policy or statute”—which can be less than four years. Transfers must be submitted while one is still in active-duty service.
Advocates of the Forever GI Bill aren’t happy with the 16-year cutoff. “We understand the minimum time-in-service for transferability eligibility, and that makes sense from a retention perspective,” said Joe Plenzler of the American Legion. “But the 16-year transfer-or-lose rule makes no sense to us . . . and disadvantages the veteran when it comes to the full use of this earned benefit.” CONTINUE AT SITE
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