The department of veteran affairs provides benefits for veterans family members. In this article we will provide you the information about these benefits and eligibility criteria to get these benefits.
Education Benefits for Veterans Family Members
The dependents can easily qualify for these benefits. The benefits provided are education benefits, health care benefits, tuition benefits, travel benefits, and many more.
Tuition Grant for Children of Veterans
The veteran affair department provides tuition grant to the deserving dependents of veterans. The students can get this grant if their age is older than 16 years and less than 26 years.
The veteran should be permanently and totally disabled to get this tuition grant. The veteran who dies in the line of duty or due to service connected disability can also apply for this grant.
The students can receive up to $2800 every academic year or semester. Half time students can receive the tuition grant of $1400 for their academic year.
Eligibility Requirements for Tuition Grant
To get the tuition grant from the veteran affairs department, the veteran must fulfill the following requirements
- Died in the line of duty or during the war
- Died due to the service connected disability as a result of injury or illness
- Is totally and permanently disabled due to the service connected disability
- Is listed as missing service member by the government
The dependents of veterans also have to fulfill the requirements to get the tuition grant.
- The dependent enrolled in the college for half of the time
- Be a resident of the state to get admission in the particular program
- The student must not have any records of assault or physical injury to others
- Student should maintain their GPA to 2.25
- The student should not be taking any loan from the federal government
Dependents educational assistance program benefits
The program pays stipend to the beneficiaries on monthly basis. This stipend depends upon the credit hours of courses or the time of on job trainings. The amount is only provided for the courses that are required for the degree. The stipend is not given for summer or winter courses offered at the institutes. The eligible veterans can get training and education for up to 45 months under this DEA program. These benefits by the program can be used for
- Four years degree or certificate program
- Training during the job
- Apprenticeship
- Refreshers course
DEA benefits for spouses
The spouse of a veteran who has been rated permanently and totally disabled can get the dependents educational assistance program benefits. Military spouse faces many hurdles and challenges due to their military service members.
The department of veteran affairs has decided to give the benefits to the spouses as well to balance the scale. These benefits start from the date when veteran affair department recognizes the disability of a veteran. This disability can be a result of service connected condition.
The spouse can get these benefits for up to 20 years. These benefits are also provided to the surviving spouse of a veteran who died in the line of duty or due to service connected disability.
Eligibility for DEA
Following is the edibility requirement for the veterans and their dependents who want to complete their education through dependents educational assistance program
- The veteran must have the disability rating of 100 percent with permanent and complete disability.
- The disability was caused due to the service connected condition
- The veteran died during his duty or due to his service connected disability. The disability must arise during the active service duty of a veteran
- The veteran who got missing in the line of duty
- The beneficiary can be hospitalizing who is receiving the services from any hospital.
This is one of the best-known programs that provide the opportunity to children to complete their education with up to 45 months of benefits. The minimum age requirement is 18 years and the maximum is 26 years. The student must belong to a veteran who is either serving in the military or has died due to any service-connected disability. The child can be an honorably retired veteran.
How to transfer Post 9/11 GI bill benefits to dependents?
GI bill provides many benefits to the veterans under one umbrella. If the veteran has not used all of his benefits then he can transfer them to their spouse or dependent.
The dependents can get the benefits like tuition grant, housing grant, books and other necessary supplies. These transferable benefits can be used by the children once the parent has completed at least 10 years in the service.
The children can also use these grants if their parents are on active duty. The dependents can qualify for the GI bill benefit even if the child dependent marries or spouse gets a divorce.
The US department of defense makes a final decision upon the transfer of benefits. To transfer the benefits the veteran has to apply in the transfer education benefit program.
Eligibility requirements for post 9/11 GI Bill Benefits
The active duty members will be allowed to transfer their GI Bill benefit to their dependents. The veteran must meet the following criteria to get the benefits transfer
- The veteran must complete at least 6 years service in the military
- The veteran must also agree to complete 4 more years in the service to have total of 10 year of service record
- The person who is getting the transferable benefits must be enrolled in the defense reporting system
All the dependents who qualify can get the benefits of their parents GI Bill. The benefits that are already used by the veteran are not transferable while the unused benefits can be transferred easily.