The Defense Department next week will begin accepting online applications for troops to transfer their education benefits to a spouse or child. The site -- https://www.dmdc.osd.mil/TEB -- won't be operational until Monday, June 29, but department officials have already begun spreading it around to get the word out.
None of the rules of the program have changed; Servicemembers with at least six years who agree another four-year tour will be allowed to share their new GI Bill benefits with a spouse, and those with 10 who sign up for four more years can give their education benefits to a child.
But, Pentagon officials gave us a few new wrinkles that folks looking to transfer their benefits will want to keep an eye on:
-- Troops can only name transfer beneficiaries while on active duty. Servicemembers who qualify can split their benefits between a spouse and several children, and can change how much each receives whenever they want. But once they separate from the military, they won't be able to put new names onto their list of relatives eligible for benefits.
So if a servicemember gets divorced and remarried after leaving the service, or if a father forgot to name one of his children a potential beneficiary while he was on active duty, those individuals won't be eligible for any GI Bill tuition money. The reason is that the transfers are designed to be a retention tool, so the Pentagon isn't overly concerned about life changes after a servicemember leaves the military.
-- Troops need to serve until Aug. 1, 2013, to be eligible. The "four more years" outlined in the measure is not simply a four-year renewal any time this year. Servicemembers must stay in the ranks until August 2013 to be eligible to transfer, and need to agree to that before they can get the proper paperwork for the tuition swap.
For troops who have recently re-upped, it means signing onto another extension. If their current tour takes them to the end of 2011, for example, they'll have to agree to another 20 months before they'll be OKed for the transferability program.
-- If you're not using benefits this fall, it might be worth waiting to sign up. Officials are confident that they'll be able to process the rush of folks applying for benefits next week, but are asking families who aren't using the benefits next semester to wait until mid- or late-July before rushing into the system. When the VA opened its online applications for benefits earlier this year, the system was briefly overwhelmed.
[PHOTO: Associated Press]
GI Bill
What about servicemembers who have been active duty for 10 years and their DEROS is past 2013, and he/she doesn't have any children, but has a spouse? The rules states that any service member that has 10 years served and sign up for another 4 can transfer his/her benefits to a child, nothing is mentioned about the spouse.
Is it still required that he sign up for another 4 years to be eligible to transfer a portion of his GI benefits to his/her spouse and is the spouse eligible?
What about servicemembers that are past the 10 year mark and has re-upped for 3 years, but because his/her MOS only allows them 3 years when they re-enlist, and he/she falls short of the August 2013 mark?
I think that servicemembers and their families have more than earned these GI benefits and the Pentagon should not use it as a retention method. They have earned every benefit that there is by putting their lives on the frontlines for the U.S.of A.
RE: GI Bill
I'll try to cover all your questions:
-- Troops can transfer to a spouse after they have six years in, but they must also sign up for another four-year tour. Anyone who wants to transfer their education money must sign up for four more years, with a few exceptions.
But they also can start transferring those benefits to a spouse after they hit the six-year mark, so spouses can be attending school while their servicemember is finishing that four years.
-- If your MOS won't allow you to enlist for four years, there are exceptions to allow a servicemember to transfer those benefits without a full extension. Visit the transferability site -- https://www.dmdc.osd.mil/TEB -- on Monday for more details on that.
-- DoD's counter-argument to the "servicemembers have earned this" point you raise is that there would be almost no incentive to stay in the ranks after four years if the transferability requirements were relaxed. Any servicemember can get the benefits for himself or herself after four years, but if you want the "extra" benefits you'll have to spend longer in the ranks.
That's just their counter-arguement; I know plenty of folks who would agree with you, and are hoping to change that in the future. But for now, that's the deal. And it's better than the old options, which didn't allow troops to share that benefit at all.
Can the service member still use the benefits?
I'm sorry if there is an obvious answer to this, but I've been reading up on this new G.I. Bill for quite some time and all of the information just seems to be running together.
Is it possible for an active duty member to transfer some of their G.I. bill benefits to a spouse, but still use part of it for themselves in the future?
RE: still use benefits?
Yes -- they way the system works, troops are eligible to receive up to 36 months of education benefits. A servicemember can keep 18 for himself and transfer 18 to a spouse, or split it into thirds and give benefits to two children while keeping some for himself.
The key in all of this, however, is that you'll have to keep track of how many benefits you have left. If your spouse/children use all 36 months, the Pentagon won't give you extra if you decide you need more for yourself.
And trust me -- this new program has some very complicated aspects, so no question is too obvious.