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Some stipend checks won’t arrive until October

Because so many people who applied for Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits didn’t do so until after the program began Aug. 1, some students will have to wait until Oct. 1 for their first living stipend checks under the new program.

But officials with the Veterans Affairs Department generally are satisfied with benefits processing. Part of the reason things may be going so well is that the number of people applying for benefits is far less than projected.

VA officials expected more than 360,000 people to use the new GI Bill this fall, but as of Sept. 2, only 236,000 claims had come in.

“Overall, we are doing very well,” said Keith Wilson, VA’s education service director, who is in charge of the program’s launch.

Of the 236,000 claims, 169,000 were processed under a system that is taking about 28 days per claim. Most of the unprocessed claims were received since the Aug. 1 effective date of the new program, Wilson said.

Living stipends — payments for housing paid directly to eligible students — are issued once a month, prorated according to the number of days in the month in which a student is enrolled. That means Sept. 1 checks would be small for the 4,540 who received them, Wilson said.

For those who did not get Sept. 1 checks, October checks will include payments retroactive to the start of the semester, he said.