“The Department of Veterans Affairs will hire 200 temporary workers and shell out $70 million to implement a major expansion of veterans’ education benefits — a process beset by communication and information technology challenges…”
“Higher-than-anticipated costs is one of a number of problems that the agency has faced for months of a yearlong charge to implement the “Forever” GI Bill, which contains 34 changes to veterans’ education benefits and boosts spending by $3 billion for 10 years.”
“It was dubbed the Forever GI Bill by supporters because it ends a 15-year limit on education benefits for veterans whose last discharge or release from active duty came on or after Jan. 1, 2013.”
“Of the 34 measures in the bill, 22 require “significant changes” to the VA’s IT systems…determined costs to program its IT systems to recognize the changes in benefits would cost about $70 million — an amount more than double the $30 million originally estimated for the task.”
“We have major concerns on whether or not the office implementing this law is receiving adequate resources to execute this overhaul…”
Source: Is VA Doing Enough To Implement The New ‘Forever’ GI Bill? – By Nikki Wentling, December 13, 2017, Task & Purpose. Read the full article here.
