Association of Veterans Education Certifying Officials
Education Service Update
20th Annual Conference
July 14-17, 2014
Robert M. Worley II
Director, Education Service
Veterans Benefits Administration
Overview
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FY 2011-FY 2013 Trainees/Dollars Paid
Long Term Solution (LTS) Updates
FY 2013/2014 Claims Processing Highlights
Executive Order 13607 and Public Law 112-249 Accomplishments
GI Bill Registered Trademark
VRAP Program Close Out
Grandfathered Tuition and Fee Rates
Web Enabled Approval Management System (WEAMS)
Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)
Transition Assistance Program (TAP)
Education Service Realignment
Chief Education Liaison Officer Realignment
Contact Us
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FY 2011 – FY 2013 Trainees/Dollars Paid
Benefit
FY 2011 Trainees /
Dollars Paid
Education Program
Chapter 30
Montgomery GI Bill (MGIB)-AD
Chapter 32
Veterans Educational Assistance Program
(VEAP)
*Chapter 33
Chapter 35
FY 2012 Trainees /
Dollars Paid
FY 2013 Trainees /
Dollars Paid
185,220 / $1.4B
118,549 / $932M
99,755 / $775M
112 / $1.3M
76 / $682K
29 / $496K
Post-9/11 GI Bill
555,329 / $7.7B
646,302 / $8.5B
754,229 / $10.2B
Survivors’ and Dependents’ Educational
Assistance Program (DEA)
90,657 / $463M
87,707 / $455M
89,160 / $483M
Chapter
1606
Montgomery GI Bill Selected Reserve
(MGIB-SR)
65,216 / $201M
60,393 / $157M
62,656 / $156M
Chapter
1607
Reserve Educational Assistance Program
(REAP)
27,302 / $95M
19,774 / $77M
17, 297 / $70M
N/A
12,251 / $6.1M
67,918 / $428M
923,836 / $9.8B
945,052 / $10.1B
1,091,044 / 12.1B
Veterans Retraining Assistance Program
(VRAP)
Total
*As of July 11th, 2014, VA issued $42 billion in Post-9/11 GI Bill benefit
payments to 1,207,482 individuals since program inception (August 2009)
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Long Term Solution (LTS) Supplemental Automation Summary
CHAPTER 33: LTS Automation Summary (June 2013-June 2014)
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Automation Summary as of July 15th
• Total Claims Received: 4,987,755
• Total Claims Fully Automated: 2,348,615
• % Claims Fully Automated: 47.1%
*Automation began 9/24/12
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Long Term Solution (LTS) – Recent Releases
Completed Installations:
• Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) rates and Tuition and Fees (T&F) caps
installed in LTS - Installed May 2014 effective August 1, 2014
Upcoming Installations:
• Remediation Release to address security vulnerabilities - July 14 – 25, 2014
• Centralization of all Ch33 letters including non-automated letters generated at
the RPOs – End of Fiscal Year 2014
• UAT for tentative release 6.5 is scheduled between - September 8 – 26, 2014
• The functionality in release 6.5 will include:
• Implement a second signature rule to claims with the 81 month check
box
• Update Debt Policy for Ch33 – VA will not pursue collection of debts of
$5 or less
• Add transfer of eligibility information to the entitlement banner
• Fix minor production defects
• Deployment of release 6.5 - Tentative: October 16 – 19, 2014
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FY 2013 Claims Processing Highlights
Significant improvements in FY 2013 claims processing were achieved
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4,513,286 Total Education Claims Processed (28% more than FY 2012)
561,139 Original Claims (14% more than FY 2012)
3,952,147 Supplemental Claims (31% more than FY 2012)
Payment Processing Accuracy Rate at 98.7%
– Exceeded the Target of 98%
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58% Reduction in Pending Claims Volume in FY 2013
– Pending Claims at the End of FY 2013 was 89,331 (FY 2012 was
213,590 Claims)
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Exceeded Claims Processing Timeliness Goals (average days to complete)
– Original Claims at 26.2 Days Compared to 30.5 in FY 2012 (14%
Improvement)
– Supplemental Claims at 9.7 Days Compared to 16.5 in FY 2012
(41% Improvement)
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FY 2014 Claims Processing Highlights
Continued improvements in FY 2014
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On track to process 4.3 million claims in FY 2014
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Payment processing accuracy is currently 98.4%
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As of June 2014, pending claims were 34,393 (61% less than the end
of FY 2013)
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Exceeding claims processing timeliness goals (average days to
complete)
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Original claims processed in 15.6 days compared to 26.2 at the
end of FY 2013 (40% improvement)
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Supplemental claims processed in 5.9 days compared to 9.7 days
at the end of FY13 (39% improvement)
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Original Claims Processing Timeliness
Goal 28 Days
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Supplemental Claims Processing Timeliness
Goal 14 Days
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Executive Order 13607 and Public Law 112-249 Accomplishments
August 2013
• Launched CareerScope pilot
October 2013
• Published student outcome
measure definitions on College
Navigator
December 2013
• Received approval for Paperwork
Reduction Act/OMB information
collection
January 2014
• Launched Complaint System
• Completed first iteration of
complaint processing SOP
benefits.va.gov/gibill
February 2014
• Launched Comparison Tool
• Began identifying institutions for
targeted risk based reviews
March 2014
• Finalized initial crosswalk
• Published GI Bill Trademark
Terms of Use in Federal Register
• Began uploading complaints to
Consumer Sentinel
May 2014
• Conducted first Risk-based
program review
July 2014
• Delivered 90/10 Analysis
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GI BillRegistered Trademark
• GI Bill® is a Federally registered trademark owned by VA
• As part of the Principles of Excellence, VA trademarked the term to stop
deceptive and misleading promotional efforts targeting GI Bill
educational benefits
• Authorized to use the trademark:
• Education/ training institutions eligible to receive GI Bill benefits
• State Approving Agencies
• Recognized Veterans Service Organizations
• Must use the trademark symbol in the most prominent place and give
attribution (wording on http://www.benefits.va.gov/gibill along with full
instructions on Terms of Use)
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GI BillRegistered Trademark
• Third-party users:
• Cannot use the term in company names, internet domain names, logos
• Can only use the term to promote VA benefit programs
• No one may:
• Use the GI Bill trademark to imply a relationship, affiliation, or association
with VA that does not exist
• Misrepresent VA services through use of the mark or by the use of
confusingly similar wording
• Enforcement:
• Report suspected violations by email to GI-Bill.Trademark@va.gov
• Potential violations under investigation
• Use of trademark in internet domain name
• VA filed a trademark dispute claim with a website owner
• Implied affiliation with VA
• VA sent cease and desist letter
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VRAP Program Close Out
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P.L. 112-56, Section 211
Sunset/last payment date: March 31, 2014 – statutorily imposed (sec. 211(k))
Final VRAP stats:
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143,139 VRAP Applications Received
126,615 Certificate of Eligibility Issued
76,494 Veterans trained or in Training
$891M VRAP Benefits Paid
Successfully completed lump-sum project:
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VA made one-time payments to enable VRAP participants to complete training for
their current enrollment period
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Policy decision to issue lump-sum payments required swift action
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The one-time payments covered training completed on or after April 1, 2014, through the
end of the participant’s current enrollment or June 30, 2014, whichever comes first
Quickly developed process and procedures to facilitate lump-sum payments
• Processed over 25,000 lump-sum payments for approximately $55M
Continuing “Clean Up” Actions and Corrections
VA/DOL Report to Congress Finalized
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Grandfathered Tuition & Fee Rates
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The Restoring GI Bill Fairness Act of 2011 allowed certain individuals attending a
program of education at a private institution of higher learning (IHL) to receive
tuition and fee payments capped at the greater of $17,500 per academic year, or
the amount payable under the 2010-2011 tuition and fee in-state maximum
amounts utilized prior to the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance
Improvements Act of 2010
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To qualify, a beneficiary must:
• Have been enrolled in the same program since January 4, 2011
• Be enrolled in an approved program at a private IHL in Arizona, Michigan, New
Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, or Texas
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This provision expires on July 31, 2014. The private school academic year tuition
and fee cap will be applied to enrollments that begin after that date
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Beginning August 1, 2014, the tuition and fee payment is capped at $20,235.02
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Web Enabled Approval Management System (WEAMS)
Web Enabled Approval Management System (WEAMS) – repository of information
about approved schools including Yellow Ribbon status, names of school certifying
officials, approved programs, semester or quarter hour status
• Cleaning up WEAMS Database
• Naming Convention- Standardizing the way school names appear in
WEAMS, by adopting the Department of ED’s IPEDS naming conventions
(e.g., no abbreviations, limited special characters)
• ED / VA Crosswalk- Preserving a data crosswalk between VA and
Department of ED that matches VA’s 38,000 approved programs with ED’s
7,700 approved schools
• Benefits of cleaning up WEAMS- Easier for student veterans to find
approved schools in the GI Bill Comparison Tool and allows for interagency
data sharing and outcome analysis
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Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)
• On June 26, 2013, the Supreme Court held, in United States v.
Windsor, that section 3 of DOMA violates the Fifth Amendment by
discriminating against same-sex couples who are lawfully married
under state law
• On September 4, 2013, the United States Attorney General
announced that the President had directed the Executive Branch to
cease enforcement of 38 U.S.C. §§ 101(3) and 101(31), the statutory
provisions governing the definitions of the terms “surviving spouse” and
“spouse,” respectively, for Veterans’ benefits, to the extent they limit
Veterans’ benefits to opposite-sex couples
• On June 20, 2014, VBA released a comprehensive policy regarding
the provision of VA benefits to individuals in same-sex marriages
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Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)
In accordance with VBA’s June 20, 2014 comprehensive policy:
• VBA will recognize a Veteran’s marriage for the purposes of paying
benefits if the marriage was recognized under the law of the place
where at least one of the parties resided:
a) when they were married; or
b) at the time when the claimant became eligible for benefits
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VBA will generally accept a claimant’s statement that he or she is
married
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For the purpose of the Post 9/11 GI Bill Transfer of Benefits VA will
recognize all DOD-approved Section 3319 transfers to dependents
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Transition Assistance Program (TAP)
Components of Transition GPS
MOC Crosswalk
Pre-Separation
Counseling
Core Curriculum
VA Benefits I
Financial
Planning
Seminar
Resilient
Transitions
VA Benefits II
Individual
Transition Plan
Review
benefits.va.gov/gibill
Career Technical
Training Track
Transition
Overview
DOL
Employment
Workshop
Education
Track
Entrepreneurship
Track
Capstone
Event
VA Develops
& Delivers
VA Assists With
Development/Delivery
Partners
Develop and
Deliver
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Education Service Realignment
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VBA realigned management authority for education claims processing from the Office of
Field Operations (OFO) to Education Service (EDU) on October 1, 2013
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Key Operations Issues:
• National workload management strategy
• Fielding a system update in late FY 2014, which will allow education claims
processing to be proportionally distributed to regional processing offices (RPOs)
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Updated performance standards
• Coordinating with RPO leadership and national unions to develop national
performance standards
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Organization structure
• Developed draft organizational structure charts to standardize organizational
structure as much as possible at each RPO for discussion with RPO leadership
during a meeting in June.
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Reporting requirements
• Developing a plan to standardize reporting across all RPOs and transitioning
from legacy data systems to the more robust VETSNET Operations Reports
(VOR) system
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Chief Education Liaison Officer (CELO) Realignment
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The work of compliance and liaison activity was centralized to VACO effective
June 1, 2014
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Impacts 4 CELOs and 118 Education Liaison Representatives (ELRs)
and Education Compliance Survey Specialists (ECSS)
The realignment rationale is:
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Nature of work is different from claims processing
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State claim processing jurisdictions have moved between RPOs
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The workload of the 4 CELOs has become unbalanced
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There has been a redistribution of the states among the 4 CELOs
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This internal realignment activity is seamless to our beneficiaries
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Contact Us
WEBSITE: www.benefits.va.gov/gibill
FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/gibillEducation
TELEPHONE: 1-888-GIBILL-1 (1-888-442-4551)
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