08/28/2020
Impact of COVID-19 on Education Benefits
Legislative changes allow VA to pay education benefits regardless of the fact that a program has been converted from resident training to online training. For GI Bill students enrolled in converted courses (including situations where the school is offering hybrid training [combining online and resident training] or where the school is offering the student the option to choose online training in lieu of resident training), they will continue to receive housing allowance payments at the resident training but only until December 21, 2020.
If a student is enrolled solely online on December 22, 2020, VA will have to reduce housing payments to the online rate effective that date (this means the student will not owe back the resident rate housing received prior to December 22, but will receive a reduced housing payment starting in January 2021 and continuing until the student resumes resident training).
