New Gi Bill For Unemployed Veterans

Montgomery Gi Bill Active Duty

The Montgomery GI Bill Active Duty program provides up to 36 months of education benefits. These benefits may be used for degree and certificate programs, apprenticeship/on-the-job training and correspondence courses. Vocational flight training is approved from September 30, 1990. Remedial, deficiency, and refresher courses may be approved under certain circumstances. Generally, benefits are payable for 10 years following your release from active duty.

Louisiana Veterans Honor Medal

The Louisiana Veterans Honor Medal was created to honor, recognize and thank Louisiana Veterans for their honorable military service. Medals are available to all honorably discharged Louisiana Veterans and to the family of those killed in action.

The Louisiana Veterans Honor Medal is available with a blue ribbon for honorable discharge, a purple ribbon for Purple Heart recipients, a black ribbon for Prisoners of War, and a yellow ribbon for killed in action.

About Gi Bill Benefits

GI Bill benefits help you pay for college, graduate school, and training programs. Since 1944, the GI Bill has helped qualifying Veterans and their family members get money to cover all or some of the costs for school or training. Learn more about GI Bill benefits belowand how to apply for them.

If you applied for and were awarded Post-9/11 GI Bill education benefits, your GI Bill Statement of Benefits will show you how much of your benefits youve used and how much you have left to use. Review your GI Bill Statement of Benefits.

The GI Bill Comparison Tool and Veterans Service Organizations can help you explore options and find out what benefits you can get. Find a Veterans service organization.

• If you have unused Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits, find out if you can transfer your benefits to your spouse or dependent children.

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Millions Of Vets May Be Eligible For Extra Gi Bill Benefits Thanks To Court Ruling

Millions of veterans could be eligible for an additional year of education benefits starting next semester thanks to another federal court ruling rejecting the Department of Veterans Affairs prohibition on collecting both Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits and Montgomery GI Bill payouts.

The decision, rendered by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit late last week, leaves federal officials with only a few long-shot options to support their arguments and overturn a pair of precedential decisions by judges.

In a statement, VA officials said they are still assessing the latest court decision but remain committed to providing veterans the benefits they have earned and deserve.

The case, Rudsill vs. McDonough, has been pending in federal courts for nearly six years. At its center is department officials assertion that veterans can use either the Post-9/11 GI Bill program or the Montgomery GI Bill program, but not both.

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Jim Rudisill, an Army veteran wounded in a roadside bomb attack in Iraq in 2005, challenged that policy, saying it was based on a misreading of the law by department officials.

Congress doesnt try to trip up veterans with their benefits. They want to protect them and take better care of them, said Tim McHugh, an Army veteran and associate at the Hunton Andrews Kurth law firm who was the lead attorney on the case.

To hear another federal appellate court agree with that is vindicating.

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What Disability Judges Think About Collecting Unemployment

Disability judges usually know when youre collecting unemployment benefits because Social Security has access to unemployment benefit information and usually includes it in your claims file. Some judges do not like to see that disability applicants are collecting unemployment benefits no matter what the circumstance. Other judges will deny your disability claim only if you received unemployment after you applied for disability benefits, unless you can prove your condition medically worsened since you applied for unemployment benefits. Other judges simply will not pay you disability benefits for the time period that you were receiving unemployment . Still others dont care even if youre receiving unemployment benefits at the time of your hearing. These judges realize that people need income to live on, and that there is no guarantee that disability benefits will be granted after the long process of applying for benefits.

In addition, in many states, you can collect unemployment even if you are ony looking for part-time work. Disability applicants are allowed to work a limited amount of time, and in these states, you are you are not necessarily telling the employment department that you are available to work full time.

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Other Va Education Benefits

Learn about a range of VA education benefits you may be eligible to receive. These include programs that may help you get added GI Bill benefits. They also include alternative programs if youre a Veteran or a member of the National Guard or Reserve and youre not eligible for the Post-9/11 GI Bill.

Can I Collect Unemployment Benefits While Using The Gi Bill

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Can you attend school on the GI Bill and still receive unemployment benefits? This is a common question many people ask when they are planning on using the GI Bill to pay for their college education. Whether you are still in the planning stages of your retirement or separation from active duty, or you are taking the opportunity to go back to school after entering the workforce and subsequent unemployment, using the GI Bill can be a great way to improve your long-term employment prospects and earning potential.

However, being able to collect unemployment benefits while using the GI Bill is not always a straightforward situation.

Each state has its own unemployment benefits policy, which can complicate the situation. So you need to be aware of how unemployment benefits work in your state to ensure you remain eligible to continue receiving unemployment benefits.

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Vocational Rehabilitation And Employment Service

The Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Service Program provides a comprehensive program of vocational rehabilitation assessment and services for veterans who have incurred or aggravated a physical or mental disability while in the armed forces of the United States. Veterans who have the potential to become employed are assisted in making viable occupational choices, and if necessary, are provided the skills needed to qualify for suitable employment. When the veteran reaches the point where he or she is job-ready, VR& E staff assists that person in the employment search process.

For those persons who do not have the option of employment by virtue of the severity of disabling conditions, VR& E may be able to provide independent living services designed to assist the individual to live in the community as independently as possible. Whether the rehabilitation plan calls for a vocational goal or independent living, the VR& E staff work very closely with the veteran and his/her family to assure progress in the program and success in the goals.

Montgomery Gi Bill Selected Reserve

The Montgomery GI Bill Selected Reserve program may be available to you if you are a member of the Selected Reserve. The Selected Reserve includes the Army Reserve, Navy Reserve, Air Force Reserve, Marine Corps Reserve and Coast Guard Reserve, and the Army National Guard and the Air National Guard. You may use this education assistance program for degree programs, certificate or correspondence courses, cooperative training, independent study programs, apprenticeship/on-the-job training, and vocational flight training programs. Remedial, refresher and deficiency training are available under certain circumstances.

Eligibility for this program is determined by the Selected Reserve components. VA makes the payments for this program.You may be entitled to receive up to 36 months of education benefits. Your benefit entitlement ends 10 years from the date of your eligibility for the program, or on the day you leave the Selected Reserve.

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Sen Carper Announces New Training Benefit Available To Unemployed Veterans

WILMINGTON Today, U.S. Sen. Tom Carper announced a new benefit for unemployed Veterans ages 35 to 60 that covers education costs for up to one year. The benefit is through a joint Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Labor program that focuses on retraining 99,000 Veterans for high-demand jobs.

As a veteran, I appreciate the sacrifices these men and women have made for our country at home and abroad. Once our brave service members conclude their military service, we have a moral imperative to support them with first-class training and education to help them successfully transition back into the workforce, said Sen. Carper. I hope veterans take advantage of this new program to provide training assistance for high-demand jobs so they can use the skills and experiences they gained in the military in the civilian workforce.

As part of a provision of the Veterans Opportunity to Work to Hire Heroes Act of 2011, the Veteran Retraining Assistance Program allows qualifying Veterans to receive up to 12 months of assistance equal to the full-time Montgomery GI Bill Active Duty rate, currently $1,473 per month. Veterans can now apply on a first-come, first-serve basis for VRAP for programs that begin on or after July 1, 2012. Assistance under this benefit program ends on March 31, 2014.

To qualify Veterans must:

One Of The Largest Policy Shocks

Like its predecessors, the Post-9/11 GI Bill was intended to benefit both the service member and the military. With respect to service members, the goals were to ensure the availability of comprehensive education benefits and to provide reservists, who had been serving on sustained periods of active duty in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, with the same benefits afforded to full-time service members. The military anticipated that such an attractive benefit would help it meet its recruiting goals and improve retention rates, specifically because the legislation allowed for the benefits to be transferred to service members’ dependents and did not have to be used by the service members themselves.

The Post-9/11 GI Bill doesn’t just pay for college or graduate school. Veterans can use the benefit for vocational or correspondence schools, business or other professional programs, technical schools, teacher certifications, licensure programs, and flight school. All these programs generally fall under three categories of institutions: public nonprofit, private nonprofit, and private for-profit. To meet veterans where they are and to maximize flexibility, many programs are available online. Student veterans enrolled in such programs receive a housing allowance based on the national cost of living average, while those who attend classes in-person receive an allowance that is determined by the cost of living where the program or school is located.

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Veterans Retraining Assistance Program

Congress passed, and the President signed into law, the VOW to Hire Heroes Act of 2011. Included in this new law is the Veterans Retraining Assistance Program . VRAP offers up to 12 months of training assistance to unemployed Veterans.

The VRAP offers 12 months of training assistance to Veterans who:

• Are at least 35 but no more than 60 years old
• Are unemployed on the date of application
• Received an other than dishonorable discharge
• Are not eligible for any other VA education benefit program
• Are not in receipt of VA compensation due to unemployability
• Are not enrolled in a federal or state job training program

The program is limited to 45,000 participants from July 1, 2012, through September 30, 2012, and 54,000 participants from October 1, 2012, through March 31, 2014. Participants must attend full-time in order to receive up to 12 months of assistance equal to the monthly full-time payment rate under the Montgomery GI BillActive Duty program . DOL will offer employment assistance to every Veteran who participates upon completion of the program.

Participants must be enrolled in a VA approved program of education offered by a community college or technical school. The program must lead to an Associate Degree, Non-College Degree, or a Certificate, and train the Veteran for a high demand occupation.

Other opportunities such as scholarships and/or grants may be available to you as well. Please contact your schools financial aid office directly for more information.

La National Guard Death And Disability Benefit

Louisiana National guardsmen suffering a permanent and total disability while on federal or state active duty on or after September 11, 2001, or the beneficiary of record of those killed in action may qualify for a $250,000 death or $100,000 disability benefit from the State of Louisiana. Certain restrictions apply.

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Disabled Veterans And Unemployment Benefits

Disabled veterans are eligible for vocational rehabilitation benefits via the Department of Veterans Affairs Vocational Rehabilitation and Education program .

The VR& E program can help with job training and additional employment services for ex-servicemembers with qualifying disabilities.

Some VR& E training programs come with housing stipends, if you qualify, to supplement your regular unemployment insurance and UCX benefits.

If you are a disabled veteran, consider applying for a federal Civil Service Job. The federal government gives qualified disabled veterans a leg up when applying for civil service jobs, via the Civil Service points system. Many state governments provide a similar benefit for service-disabled veterans as well. So if you are an ex-servicemember with a qualifying disability, you have an advantage over other applicants when you apply for government employment.

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Why Are Fewer Veterans Using The Benefit

The number of veterans using the program has dropped by more than 180,000 from 2016 to 2021, a decline of over 22 percent and a significantly larger drop than the 5 percent decline in overall undergraduate college enrollments from 2009 to 2019. Veterans advocates and those in the education community have begun to wonder what factors, beyond the declining presence in the marketplace of for-profit institutions, might account for the steep decline.

John Kamin, legislative associate at the American Legion, points to a backlog of veterans who had already left the military but were eligible for the benefit because they had served on active duty after Sept. 11, 2001. He suggests that in the program’s first five or six years, “it wasn’t just the people getting out of the military” who were using the benefit. “It was the people who’d gotten out of the military over the past 10 years,” he says.

The original Post-9/11 GI Bill mandated that veterans use their benefit within 15 years of separating from the military, which might also help explain why many of those veterans who left the military before the bill’s enactment jumped at the opportunity to use the benefit before it expired for them.

Rodney West for the Richmond Fed

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Resources For Returning Veterans

REGISTER & GET CHECKED OUT

• Register with the Veterans Administration for a post-exit medical exam. This will help veterans receive care if needed and get them on the radar screen for the VA benefits system. Visit www.va.gov for more.

JOBS & EMPLOYMENT

EDUCATION

• GI Bill. The Veterans Administration has two options to help veterans pay for college: the new Post-9/11 GI Bill and the original Montgomery GI Bill. This assistance can save vets thousands of dollars on tuition, depending on their circumstances. Go to www.gibill.va.gov to learn which bill works for you.

MENTAL HEALTH

• Mental Health Coaching. Coaching into Care is a new program that helps family and friends assist veterans who may be suffering from post-traumatic stress or other mental health issues. Visit www.mirecc.va.gov/coaching or call 1-888-823-7458.
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. PTSD is becoming increasingly common for veterans returning home. To learn more about the symptoms or get connected with mental health resources, call 1-800-342-9647 or visit www.ptsd.va.gov.
• If you need urgent guidance with mental health issues, call 1-800-273-TALK .

BENEFITS

HOUSING

OTHER

• American Legion or Veterans of Foreign Wars. These organizations have local chapters to help returning troops and connect them with their fellow vets. Visit www.legion.org or www.vfw.org

• Disabled American Veterans California:

New Education Benefits Help Veterans Who Lost Jobs During Pandemic

The Veteran Rapid Retraining Assistance Program offers education and training for high-demand jobs including health care, education and engineering to veterans who are unemployed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Veterans participating in VRRAP will receive up to 12 months of tuition and fees and a monthly housing allowance based on Post-9/11 GI Bill rates.

To be eligible, veterans must meet the following criteria:

· At least 22 years old, but less than 67 years old.

· Unemployed because of the pandemic.

· Not eligible for GI Bill or VR& E benefits.

There are 792 educational institutions that have been approved to participate in the program.

VRRAP was developed as part of the $1.9 trillion coronavirus economic relief package signed into law by President Biden in March 2021. About $17 billion was allocated to support the Department of Veterans Affairs in its response to the pandemic. Of this, $386 million went to VRRAP.

VA Secretary Denis McDonough applauded the American Rescue Plans provisions for caring for the nations veterans when it was signed into law.

Countless veterans have lost jobs, closed businesses, home-schooled children and faced uncertain prospects while our nation grapples with this health crisis, McDonough said. The American Rescue Plan is a significant piece of legislation that helps VA deliver on the presidents promise of caring for the men and women who served our great nation, especially during this unanticipated and challenging time.

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