The reason some veterans haven’t received their education and housing benefits in months is due to a series of information technology glitches at the Department of Veterans Affairs, NBC News reports.
More than 82,000 veterans are still waiting for their housing payments as of Nov. 8, with just weeks left in the school semester.
The Forever GI Bill, signed by President Donald Trump in 2017, expanded education benefits for veterans, servicemembers, families and survivors.
The VA didn’t upgrade the technical capabilities to account for the changes, though, per NBC News, and issues started when the agency waited until July 16 to tell schools to begin enrolling students.
“That’s when the floodgates opened,” Patrick Murray, the deputy director of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, told the media outlet. “With all the delays trying to get the upgrades in the ZIP code processing, they suddenly got all their enrollments, which usually come during the spring across the summer. Instead they all came a few weeks before the fall semester, and they couldn’t keep up.”
A VA spokesperson called them “processing issues” and said “further system changes and modifications” were being made, including testing the IT solution.
The House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs will hold a hearing on the issue Wednesday.
"This is — to be kind — a train wreck,” said Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tenn., the chairman of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs. “It’s really frustrating the amount of money that Congress has appropriated for veterans, and this is the way VA has rolled it out. This discussion started over a year ago.”
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