Extend eligibility of Ch. 35 education benefits
Help surviving spouses and other Veterans to extend the length of eligibility and benefits for educational progress.
To whom it may concern:
I am writing to plead that a serious issue among surviving spouses and other Veterans in today's society. Currently, education benefits are for 45 months and are only eligible to be used within 10 years of the day of death of the spouse or separation from the military. Although these benefits are appreciated, they are not sufficient to allow a spouse or veteran to complete the necessary education that will allow these citizens to fully contribute to the civilian society they now live in.
If you take my personal story, I was 22 years old when my husband was KIA in Iraq. Not only did I struggle with grief from the loss of my husband but I faced being separated from the military life I had been ripped away from. The daily struggle to make life altering decisions like where to bury my husband's body, whether or not to purchase a home for stability, or even going back to school or work. I would register for classes and then struggle to get through them due to flashbacks, nightmares, or other symptoms of grief that literally take over your life. I was finally able to arrange my life and make a plan to start learning how to rebuild for a future and begin school on a full-time basis. I am now faced with the expiration of my education benefits and I will still not be able to complete my educational goals that will ensure that promising future that my husband hoped to provide for me. I want to peruse graduate school but currently have no options to attend because I will have exhausted all of the current education benefits that are available to me at the moment.
I want to be able to become fully self sufficient and by affording a surviving spouse like me extended education benefits could help that goal become reality, which would in turn save the tax payers up to $1 million dollars in my case alone. Imagine if you extended benefits for all of the surviving spouses and Veterans who WANT to further their education so they would no longer need to be dependent upon the current VA benefits they receive. If you could save taxpayers $1 million dollars in my case alone, think of the potential economic stimulus you could provide for our nation by our spouses and veterans who loved this country enough to sacrifice it all in order to ensure that this amazing nation continues to progress and flourish in a gloomy and dark economic uncertainty.
Thank you for your time
I am writing to plead that a serious issue among surviving spouses and other Veterans in today's society. Currently, education benefits are for 45 months and are only eligible to be used within 10 years of the day of death of the spouse or separation from the military. Although these benefits are appreciated, they are not sufficient to allow a spouse or veteran to complete the necessary education that will allow these citizens to fully contribute to the civilian society they now live in.
If you take my personal story, I was 22 years old when my husband was KIA in Iraq. Not only did I struggle with grief from the loss of my husband but I faced being separated from the military life I had been ripped away from. The daily struggle to make life altering decisions like where to bury my husband's body, whether or not to purchase a home for stability, or even going back to school or work. I would register for classes and then struggle to get through them due to flashbacks, nightmares, or other symptoms of grief that literally take over your life. I was finally able to arrange my life and make a plan to start learning how to rebuild for a future and begin school on a full-time basis. I am now faced with the expiration of my education benefits and I will still not be able to complete my educational goals that will ensure that promising future that my husband hoped to provide for me. I want to peruse graduate school but currently have no options to attend because I will have exhausted all of the current education benefits that are available to me at the moment.
I want to be able to become fully self sufficient and by affording a surviving spouse like me extended education benefits could help that goal become reality, which would in turn save the tax payers up to $1 million dollars in my case alone. Imagine if you extended benefits for all of the surviving spouses and Veterans who WANT to further their education so they would no longer need to be dependent upon the current VA benefits they receive. If you could save taxpayers $1 million dollars in my case alone, think of the potential economic stimulus you could provide for our nation by our spouses and veterans who loved this country enough to sacrifice it all in order to ensure that this amazing nation continues to progress and flourish in a gloomy and dark economic uncertainty.
Thank you for your time
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