What Happens When My 12 Months of Transferred Post 9/11 GI Bill Benefits End?
Q: Dear expert, I am eligible for 100% benefits on the Post 9/11 GI Bill. However, I was only given a period of 12 months through transferred benefits. It says I am eligible until my 23rd birthday. What exactly will happen when those 12 months are up? Will it affect me differently because I am going to an out of state school instead of an in state school?
A: With 12 months of Post 9/11 GI Bill benefits, you would be able to go to school for three semesters. During the last semester, you most likely will run out of benefits midway through, but the VA would keep paying you until the end of the semester.
When you use up your 12 months of benefits, the VA would stop paying your tuition at the in-state resident rate, so you would be responsible for paying all of your own tuition instead of just the difference between out-state and resident tuition.
And you would no longer receive the housing allowance, so you’ll have to arrange for other sources of money in order to pay monthly bills. You would no longer receive the book stipend, which can be as high as $500 per semester, so you’ll have to buy your own books. So yes it would hit you in the pocket hard.
Before that time arrives though, you should be working on getting scholarships, grants, getting into a work/study program, or getting a part-time job, so you have money coming in to pay for these things once your Post 9/11 GI Bill benefits end. Otherwise, you might be left at the mercy of student loans or worse yet, have to drop out of school.
You know what is going to happen and when it would happen, so prepare for it now.
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