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The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is making it easier for eligible Veterans to receive their additional G.I. Bill benefits as a result of the Supreme Court's Rudisill decision and the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims’ (Veterans Court) Perkins decision.
How is VA making it easier to receive these benefits?
VA will no longer require Veterans to ask VA for an assessment of their eligibility for both Montgomery GI Bill (MGIB) and Post-9/11 GI Bill (PGIB) under the two court rulings. Instead, VA will continue to review eligibility for Veterans with less than three months of education benefits left and who are either currently enrolled in school or were enrolled in the last six months. Focusing on these high-priority Veterans means that no student will be left without benefits if they qualify for additional benefits under either ruling.
Additionally, VA is in the process of updating its systems to automate eligibility reviews and issue determinations--or request additional information when necessary-- for all Veterans, eliminating the need for a Veteran to request a review.
VA will continue to notify all Veterans of their eligibility under both rulings once their review is complete.
Background
In January 2025, VA announced the impact of the Rudisill decision on qualifying periods of service and how benefits are earned. Of the approximately 1 million originally impacted Veterans, VA informed 380,000 Veterans they would need to submit a claim for VA to make an official determination on entitlement.
On May 16, 2025, the Veterans Court issued a precedential opinion in Perkins v. Collins, Vet. App. No. 24-6515. Relying on the Supreme Court’s Rudisill decision, Perkins held that “a veteran whose single period of service is long enough to qualify for benefits under both the [MGIB and PGIB] programs without using any period of time twice to establish eligibility is entitled to receive benefits under both programs up to a statutory 48-month cap on such educational benefits.”
VA estimates that the Perkins decision may enable as many as 1.2 million additional Veterans to access up to an additional 12 months of education benefits.
What if Veterans have additional questions?
VA is committed to providing impacted Veterans and other stakeholders with regular updates about VA’s implementation efforts. For more information about how the Rudisill and Perkins decisions affect VA education and training benefits, stakeholders are encouraged to visit the Impact of the Rudisill and Perkins Court Decisions on Veterans’ Education Benefits webpage.
Veterans with questions about their GI Bill benefits may submit inquiries through Ask VA. To use Ask VA, Veterans must have an authenticated VA account.
Respectfully,
Veterans Benefits Administration
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