September is Suicide Prevention Month, and we want Veterans to know that you don’t have to solve life’s challenges alone. Day-to-day issues with finances, jobs, housing, and relationships can be stressful, and it’s important to get help before your problems feel overwhelming.

Don’t wait. Reach out. If you or a Veteran you know needs support, visit VA.gov/REACH.

Are you looking for a tool to help you identify the university or college that matches your higher education goals and maximize your potential in the workforce? Look no further than the Center for Veteran Transition and Integration (CVTI) where you can learn more about options available to you in higher education. Although CVTI is affiliated with Columbia University, its focus is on providing Veterans such as yourself with information, support and access to any college and university that best fits your needs. Learn more: https://veterans.columbia.edu/.

Prepare for college, from the comfort of your home! Warrior-Scholar Project is offering two virtual academic boot camps from December 11-16, 2022. Revisit college-level reading and essay writing in their one-week virtual humanities boot camp, or brush up on math and physics in our one-week virtual STEM boot camp. Boot camp prepared you for the military, Warrior-Scholar Project prepares you for college. Apply now!

The Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) waiver offers a way to get closer to loan forgiveness. Time-limited changes to the PSLF Program rules allow borrowers to receive credit for past periods of repayment that would otherwise not qualify for PSLF. 

To apply for these benefits, borrowers will have to submit a PSLF form by October 31, 2022. Additional information, and the application for PSLF, can be found on the Federal Student Aid website at Federal Student Aid PSLF Information.

On August 24, 2022, the President announced the student loan relief plan. This announcement does not impact GI Bill benefits. However, for many Veterans, service members, and their families, this new plan may mean relief from the burden of student loans.

If you have questions about the new student loan relief plan please read the White House Fact Sheet. You can also read the official Department of Education announcement.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is extending its financial hardship suspension on benefit debts through Dec. 31, 2022. Beginning in September, debt notification letters will be mailed to affected Veterans advising them of the extended hardship suspension option, as well as extended debt repayment plans, waivers and compromises. Benefit debts include debts related to disability compensation, non-service-connected pension, and education benefits. If you currently have a VA debt, learn more about what this means for you, by reading this recent blog.

Veterans and beneficiaries can manage their debt online or call 800-827-0648 with questions regarding benefit overpayments. Impacted individuals can also sign in to Ask VA (https:/ask.va.gov) to send a request (options to reach DMC are found under the “Veterans Affairs-Debt” category).

GI Bill students, have you created your VA.gov account using ID.me? This will allow you to take advantage of future enhancements to your education benefits experience and utilize the Ask VA system! As part of the account creation process, you must verify your identity with ID.me by either uploading a photo of your license or state ID, uploading a photo of your passport, or answering questions about your credit history. For more information, check out the How to Create a VA.gov account Using ID.me video.

Hiring Our Heroes (HOH) offers fellowships for transitioning service members, Veterans, and military spouses wanting to work in the tech/cloud-based industry. The HOH Salesforce Fellowship Program, in partnership with Salesforce, has placed more than 200 Salesforce-certified professionals with 100% remote, paid 12-week fellowships across 55 companies. Through this program, fellows gain hands-on work experience leading to employment opportunities. The program currently has a 95% job offer rate and average salary of $88,500 for fellows. For more information about becoming a Salesforce fellow through Hiring Our Heroes, visit HiringOurHeroes.org/Salesforce. 

Salesforce Military offers self-paced, online training and certification exams at no cost for active-duty service members, Veterans, and military spouses. Visit Salesforce Military to learn more and to sign up for the free training. Salesforce fellows must earn at least one Salesforce certification before the cohort application deadline. They do not earn the certification as a participant in the fellowship. The program has three cohorts a year. The application deadline for 2023 cohort 1 is Oct. 13, 2022. 

It has been a year since the monthly enrollment verification requirement was rolled out to Post-9/11 GI Bill® students. As you go into the new semester, please remember to verify your enrollment at the end of each month to continue receiving your Monthly Housing Allowance (MHA) and/or kicker payments uninterrupted. 

If you have already been verifying your enrollment monthly via text or email, you will continue receiving a message on the last day of the month to verify.

If you are a new GI Bill student, you will receive a text from VA to opt into text verification. If you don’t opt into text verification, you will be opted in to email verification, as long as VA’s Education Service has a valid email address on file for you. For more information on the process, visit the Enrollment Verification webpage.

As of August 1, 2022, GI Bill students enrolled in a program of education while on active duty for at least 30 consecutive days will now receive a Basic Housing Allowance (BAH) from the Department of Defense instead of a Monthly Housing Allowance (MHA) from VA.

If you are a GI Bill student who had a new enrollment and went on active duty after August 1, please contact your School Certifying Official to have them submit a change of status to avoid overpayment. We encourage GI Bill students who have been on active duty for at least 30 days to calculate your housing allowance using the BAH calculator. GI Bill students who are not on active duty can calculate their MHA using the GI Bill Comparison Tool.

Many of you may have utilized the GI Bill Comparison Tool to find the school and/or program you are currently attending. Since then, the tool has gone through updates based on your feedback, allowing for a more personalized search experience.

In this recently published blog, we highlight the new side-by-side comparison and map features and share one Veteran’s story on how she used the tool to find a program that aligned with her career goals. Head over to VA News to read more about the modernization updates and her story!

Once you have found the right program for you, be sure to visit the WEAMS site to verify that your program of choice is GI Bill approved. You can search by institution and program type or location.

Over the past year, VA has conducted usability testing sessions with GI Bill students like you to collect feedback and determine ways we can make applying for Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits easier than before. We are expanding our usability testing sessions on future application updates for Post-9/11 GI Bill applicants, Transfer of Entitlement (ToE), Fry Scholarship, and Survivors’ and Dependents’ Educational Assistance (DEA) populations.

During these sessions, Veterans and service members interact with system prototypes and share feedback on what works well and what needs to be improved in the application process. Here’s what one participant shared during a recent session, “This definitely looks like something I would be able to do on my own. A lot of families would not know what the best option for them is, so this information is really great to have in front of them.” If you are interested in providing feedback about your GI Bill application experience, don’t hesitate to sign up today!

Do you have a question or concern about your benefits? Contact us safely and securely with Ask VA!