SCO Workshop Annual Reporting Fees
AVECO July 14 – 18, 2014
Marie George, Chief Education Liaison Officer, Central Region
St Louis Regional Processing Office Update
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VETERANS BENEFITS ADMINISTRATION
Annual Reporting Fee - Background
• The Annual Reporting Fee is authorized under 38 U.S.C. §3684(c) and is
paid in lieu of any other compensation or reimbursement for reports or
certifications that the school is required to submit to VA by law or
regulation
• The ARF payment shall be used solely for the processing of enrollment
certifications or for supporting programs for Veterans at a facility.
• Educational Institutions are paid at a rate of $12.00 per student enrolled
during the calendar year.
Educational Institutions that process
certifications for advance payments are paid at a rate of $15.00 per
student that receives an advance payment
• Fees are paid for students receiving VA education benefits under Chapter
30, 31, 32, 33, 1606, and 1607.
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VETERANS BENEFITS ADMINISTRATION
Annual Reporting Fee - Background
• BDN calculates the ARF payment for each facility based on
the award lines within the BDN master records for each
benefit
• BDN will extract a list of students per facility from each
benefit system
• These extracts include info on whether the student received
an advance payment during the calendar year
• The extracts are combined and then scrubbed to remove
duplicate instances of a student
• The count of students at each rate is summed and a total
amount due is calculated for each facility
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VETERANS BENEFITS ADMINISTRATION
Annual Reporting Fee - Validation
• Once the amount payable is calculated, the stations will receive a
preliminary list of potential facility rejects
• A facility may be rejected for one of the following reasons:
– Reporting Fee Bar indicator is set in WEAMS
– Applicable Law Code Indicator is set to “Not Approved” in WEAMS
– School Name and/or Address Error
– Invalid Facility Code
• Stations are to make corrections in WEAMS to facilities that were
erroneously rejected
• If the facility was rejected for Invalid Facility Code, stations may submit a
corrected facility code to Hines ITC
• Once validations are complete, final payments will be generated
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VETERANS BENEFITS ADMINISTRATION
Annual Reporting Fee - Payment
• The ARF payment must be made as close as possible to the end of the
calendar year for which it is due, typically it is paid within the first quarter
of the calendar year
• Payments are paid using the 8 digit facility code, one payment per facility
code will be generated (no combined payments for a school with multiple
facility codes)
• Payments will be made by Electronic Funds Transfer to the EFT account
stored in WEAMS
• If no EFT account exists for a facility, the payment will be sent by check to
the mailing address of the School Certifying Officials
• A listing of students associated with the ARF is sent to each facility
directly
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VETERANS BENEFITS ADMINISTRATION
REPORTING FEES
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•
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Reporting fees have been issued
Schools received a list of students directly from Hines
ELRs can request payment for any students not included
Send a list of names to ELR
$12.00 for each certification
Effective October 1, 2011, VA requires all reporting fees to
be used exclusively in support of school efforts to certify
the enrollment of their VA students
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VETERANS BENEFITS ADMINISTRATION
Annual Reporting Fee – Rejects
• VA Responsibility
• Any ARF payments that were rejected during the final
payment processing will be reviewed by the Station of
Jurisdiction
• If it is determined the payment should be paid, the SOJ will
request a supplemental payment be issued to the facility
• If it is determined the facility was not due an ARF, no further
action is necessary
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VETERANS BENEFITS ADMINISTRATION
Annual Reporting Fee - Rejects
• VA Responsibility
• A daily report or returned ARF payments is generated by
BDN
• If an ARF payment is returned, the Station of Jurisdiction
must review to determine if the facility is still entitled to the
payment
• If entitled, the SOJ will request a supplemental payment be
issued to the facility
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VETERANS BENEFITS ADMINISTRATION
Annual Reporting Fee – Supplemental
Payments
If a supplemental payment needs to be issued to a facility, the
Station of Jurisdiction must submit a request to Hines ITC which
should include a list of facility codes to be paid along with the
payment amount due
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VETERANS BENEFITS ADMINISTRATION
Reporting Fee Requirements
PL 111-377, Section 203
• ``Any reporting fee paid an educational institution or joint
apprenticeship training committee after the date of the
enactment of the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational
Assistance improvements Act of 2011 shall be utilized by
such institution or committee solely for the making of
certifications required under this chapter or chapter 31,
34, or 35 of this title or for otherwise supporting
programs for veterans.''.
• Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section
shall take effect on October 1, 2011.
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VETERANS BENEFITS ADMINISTRATION
Resources
•www.benefits.va.gov/gibill
•Locate your ELR
•Download SCO Handbook
•Benefits information
Debt Management Center
•dmcedu.vbaspl@va.gov – SCO only
•dmc.ops@va.gov - students or
schools
•800-827-0648
•www.va.gov/debtman/
National Education Call Center
•888-442-4551 – General Questions
•855-225-1159 - SCO dedicated
phone line
VETERANS BENEFITS ADMINISTRATION
Ask a question (Right Now Web):
www.benefits.va.gov/gibill
Questions?
VETERANS BENEFITS ADMINISTRATION