LegiStorm

Summary:

Congress determined that because military service in Iraq and Afghanistan following September 11, 2001, was particularly challenging, servicemembers from that era deserved a veterans educational assistance program more robust than those otherwise available at the time. The Post9/11 GI Bill was designed to provide more generous benefits than the Montgomery GI BillActive Duty, and to meet additional policy objectives. Partially in response to the planned enhanced benefits, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) advocated for including transferability such that servicemembers would remain in service longer rather than leaving for their own education after a single obligated period of active duty. As enacted in 2009, the Post-9/11 GI Bill provided educational assistance to servicemembers and veterans, as well as the family members to whom they transfer benefits. Members of Congress, DOD, servicemembers, and veterans continue to examine and reconsider the contours of transferability, particularly eligibility and the transfer process. Post-9/11 GI Bill recipients generally start with 36 months of entitlement at a certain benefit level. Receipt of most educational assistance payments is charged against the individual’s entitlement, reducing the number of months of his or her remaining entitlement. Once the entitlement is exhausted, the individual is no longer eligible for the Post-9/11 GI Bill. The benefit level (50%-100%) is the percentage of the maximum benefit to which an individual is eligible based on his or her length of qualifying active duty service and other eligibility characteristics. For example, an individual with 36 months of qualifying active duty service may be at the 100% benefit level during the 36-month entitlement period, while an individual with 90 days of qualifying active duty service may be at the 50% benefit level during the 36-month entitlement period. In practice, the benefit level reflects a percentage of the maximum monetary benefit. For example, an individual at the 50% benefit level is eligible for no more than 50% of the maximum tuition and fees benefit of $28,937.09 at a private institution of higher learning (IHL) from August 1, 2024, to July 31, 2025. Post-9/11 GI Bill-eligible servicemembers who have completed at least six years of qualified service (defined as active duty or Selected Reserve by DOD) and agree to serve four additional years (for a total of 10 years of qualified service) may request to transfer some or all of their unused Post-9/11 GI Bill entitlement to one or more eligible dependents. The qualifying servicemember’s child(ren), spouse, and unmarried legal ward(s) are eligible dependents. The transfer request includes the designation of the number of months of entitlement to be transferred to each selected eligible dependent. The aggregate number of months of entitlement transferred to dependent(s) plus the entitlement retained by the servicemember may not exceed the qualifying servicemember’s remaining entitlement. DOD may approve or deny a transfer request. After a transfer request is approved, the transferor may revoke or modify the months of transferred entitlement at any time until all of the transferred entitlement has been exhausted. The ways in which transferees use their entitlement and the benefits they receive are similar to the ways in which eligible servicemembers and veterans use their entitlement and the benefits they receive. A spouse-transferee can begin using transferred entitlement once the transfer is approved, but for a child-transferee to begin using transferred entitlement, (1) he or she must achieve a high school diploma (or equivalent) or reach age 18 and (2) the transferor must complete at least 10 years of qualified service or the DOD-required years of service. Transferees are at the same benefit level as the transferor. A spouse-transferee may use the entitlement at any time unless he or she is subject to a 15-year delimiting date because the qualifying veteran was last discharged or released from active duty service before January 1, 2013. Child-transferees must use the entitlement before reaching age 26. From FY2011 to FY2023, approximately 5% of Post-9/11 GI Bill recipients were spouse-transferees and about 14% were child-transferees. Child-transferees have received a higher aggregate amount of benefit payments than the average Post-9/11 GI Bill recipient and spouse-transferees.