Upstate Veterans Waiting for G.I. Bill Money

More than 100,000 veterans are taking advantage of a new post-9/11 GI bill which helps veterans and military families earn undergraduate or advanced degrees; but several months into the school year, about half are still waiting for that money. A young Upstate veteran says it almost cost him everything. So what's the hold-up?

After Zach Pitts graduates from Spartanburg Community College, he hopes to earn a degree in landscape architecture from Clemson. "It's something I've always wanted to do since I was 18."
After joining the Marines and serving in Iraq, he is now in the National Guard. Pitt's tuition and living expenses are paid through federal tuition assistance programs. Pitts says, "Without those benefits, there is almost no hope of me going to college, and even if I could, it would be on a very limited basis."

Ten of thousands of students like Zach are in limbo, waiting on money from the federal government, because when the new GI bill went into effect in August, the US Department of Veterans Affairs didn't have enough people to process claims. That was unacceptable to Pitt, a straight A student. “I was literally down to the wire. I was days, less than a week, two maximum, away from losing my home, which obviously would have meant having to quit school, and everything that I would have worked for would have been completely ruined,” says Pitts. After not getting results from his local VA benefits representative, Pitts says he contacted Senator Lindsey Graham's office. Pitts says, "Within a week and a half of sending that paperwork to Senator Graham's paperwork in Columbia, amazingly, my benefits just started coming in."

Spartanburg Community College Vice President of Student Affairs Ron Jackson says the hold-up is at the federal level - where he says changes need to be made. What would he suggest to them? He says, "Go back and look at your human resources. Go and look at the updates in technology they could help move this process along quickly." He says the men and women who serve our country deserve the same respect they offered when asked to call upon their country. "When you think of the services they have provided to the country, and they were called at time when they couldn't say, well, let me, give me a few extra minutes, or a few moments or months or days, because they had to go right then and there. I think we need to be as equally as proactive at providing those services to that population," Jackson says.

Pitts says perseverance pays off. “Do not give up, because there is nobody who is going to do this for you," says Pitts.

The South Carolina State Office of Veterans' Affairs confirms to News Channel 7 emergency checks have been released to help veterans whose payments are delayed. Contact your local VA office for details.

VA to issue emergency checks for GI benefits: http://www.rr.com/news/topic/article/rr/9000/9027047/Veterans_awaiting_GI_Bill_turn_to_loans_parents

US Department of Veterans Affairs: https://iris.va.gov/scripts/iris.cfg/php.exe/enduser/cci/phonenbrs.php