Chapter 35 benefits, are you eligible? And the most important thing to know about the GI Bill

[00:00:00] Alison: Hello, hello, and welcome back to the show. So we've kind of been on a little bit of an education kick here lately, talking about homeschooling for the last couple of episodes. And so I just wanted to add in a couple of other things. Chapter 35 or DEA. benefits, which are dependence education assistance program.

[00:00:22] Alison: So I have not, I had not heard about that program previously. I saw someone else post about it and I was like, what the heck is that? So I did some research. I'm going to share that with you. And then and then I thought about doing an entire episode on the GI bill. I am 100 percent not. The authority on the GI bill.

[00:00:43] Alison: I have dug through it quite a bit looking at benefits for for us, for our family. And then also for one of my best friends whose husband was active duty for 26 years and was killed. Looking for what benefits they were eligible for that cause they had an eight year old daughter at the time.

[00:01:05] Alison: So I've kind of dug into a lot of it that way, but I'm definitely not. by any means a GI Bill specialist. So you guys need to let me know if that is an episode that you would like. And then I will try to find someone that I can bring on the show to get more information about that. So hit me up, send me an email if that is something that you would like me to pursue.

[00:01:26] Alison: So I just wanted to share with you this chapter 35 survivors and dependents, educational assistance. So one of my first questions was, was, well, is it the GI bill? It's not the GI bill. So the the. Post 9 11 GI Bill or Chapter 33 benefits are solely for the service member who served on active duty.

[00:01:55] Alison: The Chapter 35 Veteran Education benefits are for surviving active duty veterans and their dependents. So that's the difference. It's a, it's different from the GI Bill. Okay, so Okay, so the, if you are a child or a spouse of a veteran or service member who has died, is captured or missing, or has disabilities, that's a big one.

[00:02:21] Alison: I think we have a lot of disability ratings in the military community. You may be able. Able to get help paying for school or job training through this DEA program called chapter 35. So to find out if it's something that you're eligible for, we're just going to go through this really quickly. I will link to this.

[00:02:41] Alison: This is on the veterans affairs va. gov website that I'm getting this information from. I will make sure that I link this so that if you're like, Hey, I think I do qualify for that. You can get more information. I just want you to have it. That's one of the things that I'm really trying to do on this show is.

[00:03:00] Alison: I think that there are so many benefits and programs that we have available to us and we don't always know that they're there. So this is this might be one of those things for you or maybe you have a friend or family member who might benefit from these benefits. So if you, okay, to the eligibility requirements.

[00:03:20] Alison: So one of the following descriptions must be true. So here they are the veteran or service member is permanently and totally disabled due to a service connected disability or the veteran or service member died while on active duty or as a result of service connected disability or the veteran or service member is missing in action or was captured in the line of duty by a hostile force or the veteran or service member was forcibly detained or held or interred in the line of duty by a foreign entity or POW or the veteran or service member is in the hospital or getting outpatient treatment for a service connected permanent and total disability and is likely to be discharged for that disability effective December 23 of 2006.

[00:04:10] Alison: Okay. If you are the child of a veteran or service member, you can get benefits if you are between the ages of 18 and 26, except in certain cases, and you may be married or unmarried. So that's good to know. If you are over 18 and you're using DEA, you can't get dependency and indemnity compensation DIC from the VA at the same time.

[00:04:35] Alison: You can't get both of them. If you join the military, you can't use this benefit while on active duty. And if you want to use this benefit after you leave the service, you can't have a dishonorable discharge. Military service can extend your eligibility, but this increase doesn't usually go past your 31st birthday.

[00:04:55] Alison: If you are the spouse of a veteran or service member. Your benefits start on the date that they conclude that you qualify or the date of the veteran's death and last for 10 years. If we rated the veteran as permanently and totally disabled with an effective date that is three years after discharge from active duty, you will qualify for benefits for 20 years from that effective date.

[00:05:21] Alison: That was a policy that began in 2008. They won't pay benefits for training or schooling that started before that date. If the service member died on active duty, your benefits and 20 years from the date of death, you can, so this is as a spouse, you can get the DIC, the dependency and indemnity compensation payments and use DEA benefits.

[00:05:47] Alison: If you are. the spouse of a veteran or service member. You cannot, if you are the, excuse me, if you are the child. So that was kind of a lot, but and again, I will link to that in the in the show notes, but if you have a service member who was a hundred percent. Disabled. You might qualify for this, for this benefit, this chapter 35 benefit.

[00:06:12] Alison: And again, it is separate from the GI bill. So I just wanted to put that out there. I had never heard about it before. I just wanted. Wanted you to know the other thing that, and this is the, the one thing that I am going to share with you about the GI Bill is that I'm, I was not aware of this when we were talking about transitioning out at one point in our career.

[00:06:42] Alison: And I was I'm, I was quite pissed off honestly to tell you. So here's the deal with the GI Bill. to transfer, transfer your benefits. You have to have served at least six years in the armed forces. And then once you have submitted your transfer of benefits, you owe an additional four years in order to transfer your benefits.

[00:07:13] Alison: So if you are coming to the end of your career, your spouse is starting to go through taps, transitioning out, getting all the retirement paperwork and everything ready to go. That is too late for you to be able to transfer those benefits because you would owe an additional four years. They don't care if you already have 22 years of service, 22 years of service.

[00:07:38] Alison: It doesn't matter by the time they accept your transfer paperwork, you owe them four more years. It does not matter how many you have in there. Okay, so that's number one. Number two is you need to, or your significant other, needs to make sure that that paperwork is received. And that it is documented because what happened to us is Michael went through he Did whatever online?

[00:08:05]

[00:08:06] Alison: Okay. , while in the Armed forces transfers, we'll use the Mill Connect website. to designate, modify and revoke a transfer of entitlement request. So mill connect is where you're going to go to apply for transfer of benefits. So again, you apply for transfer of benefits. Don't just let that go and think it's all, everything's fine.

[00:08:30] Alison: So what happened to us is Michael did that when we got transferred to Florida and then we were in that, are we staying, are we going, are we retiring? What are we doing? I'm not really sure. You need to check on this. And he checked on it and he thought three years ago that he had submitted this transfer request and they had lost it.

[00:08:53] Alison: Shocking. Isn't that shocking information? I know that never happens, right? So, so you have to, we'd start all over. . We thought we already had, you know, three years in and we're everything's going to be fine. No, there was nothing in, they had, they didn't have it. They didn't have a record of it.

[00:09:10] Alison: She, we had to start all over. So then you, Oh, if you want that full benefit, You owe them four more years. I was like, what the what? It's already been 22. Why is it four more? I whatever. I don't, I don't get it. I think that that's messed up, but anywho. Okay. So you need to make sure that if you are the service member or if you are the significant other, other of a service member that you put in the transfer of benefits.

[00:09:42] Alison: I would do it as soon as you reach the six year mark, that's when you're eligible for it. And then you would still have, would still owe that four more years to get the full benefit. So here's the thing. And again, I'm not going to go super duper into it because I am not. By any means, the authority on the GI Bill, this is just what I have gleaned from the research that I've done on my own, is that there is really no downside to designating a transfer for your spouse, for your kids.

[00:10:16] Alison: You can, you can transfer as much or as little of your GI Bill as you want. You can also change. at any point once it has been accepted, right? Once the transfer process, once you have been accepted and you've met that time, you can, you only can do one a month, but you can transfer and change the percentages of your GI bill as many times as you want.

[00:10:46] Alison: Okay? And then the other part of it too, is that, If you decide that you want to use the GI Bill, then you use the GI Bill, and if there's anything left, then your dependents can have it, but if there's not, then they, then they wouldn't get it, you would use it. There's no, so if you, so what I'm trying to say is that you, as the service member, are not signing away your ability to use the GI Bill.

[00:11:11] Alison: If you transfer those benefits to your spouse or to your children, you are just allowing that option. Okay? Because this is what happens. Real life example. Again, my bestie, her husband did 26 years active duty, retired, was in process of using his GI Bill for trade school. So he was like, I'm going to use it.

[00:11:37] Alison: I'm not going to transfer for it, for it. Wow. Transfer it to anybody else. Cause he's going to use it. And then six months later, he's killed by a drunk driver. And now all of these GI Bill benefits go away because they weren't designated to anybody else. So his spouse is not eligible for them. His daughter is also not eligible for them because they were not designated.

[00:12:02] Alison: So you never know what's going to happen. prepare for all of them, all of the eventualities that could happen. And again, just because you put in to be able to transfer your benefits does not mean that you no longer have access to them. Okay? So good rule of thumb, if you've got at least six years in, put in the transfer benefits, get the rest of your four years on, and then you don't have to worry about it.

[00:12:30] Alison: And it's something that's already. already in the works. But again, if you, if you wait until you're in your last year before you retire as too late, baby, it's too late. You're not going to be able to do it. And again, we work really freaking hard, right? You're the service members work really hard and the family members, we sacrifice a lot as well.

[00:12:54] Alison: And we. really deserve all of the benefits that we can possibly get from them. And this is a huge one and just such a waste to not be able to utilize it. So, all right, that's it until next time