Veterans & Service Members

AACRAO recognizes and honors the sacrifices these men and women have made and its members are proud to assist them and meet their educational needs. Veterans and students on active military duty and their families face special circumstances and challenges.

Changes in federal statute and executive actions have greatly promoted the expansion of services toward veterans and their families. Since the Post-9/11 GI Bill was passed in 2009, close to 1 million veterans, service members, and eligible dependents have taken advantage of the educational benefits available to them. With the passage of more recent legislation, such as the Forever GI Bill in 2017 and the Isakson Roe and THRIVE Acts in 2021, there will be significant changes to military education benefits over the coming years.

Capitol

Latest Actions

AACRAO recently hosted a webinar to discuss the implementation of veteran legislation passed in December 2020, also known as the Johnny Isakson and David P. Roe Veterans Health Care and Benefits Improvement Act. This law will have a transformative effect on the mission of Education Service to provide ready access to, and timely and accurate delivery of, education benefits to Veterans, Service members, and their families, as well as further enable the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to empower GI Bill beneficiaries to achieve their vocational and career goals.

Other recent legislation introduced in both the House and Senate include important provisions to help ensure veterans can continue to receive their education benefits as well as technical corrections to the legislation passed last year.

UPDATES

Education Dept. Announces Overhaul of PSLF Program

Oct 6, 2021, 20:27 PM
legacy id :
Summary : The new policy will result in 22,000 borrowers who have consolidated loans—including previously ineligible loans—being immediately eligible without further action on their part.
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The U.S. Department of Education announced this week an overhaul of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program, which will be implemented over the next year.

According to a department press release, the policy will allow 22,000 borrowers with consolidated loans—including previously ineligible loans—to be immediately eligible for $1.74 billion in forgiveness with no further action on their part. Another 27,000 borrowers could potentially qualify for an additional $2.82 billion in forgiveness if they certify additional periods of employment, the press release stated.

The changes announced today include: a limited PSLF waiver that allows all payments by student borrowers to count toward PSLF, regardless of loan program or payment plan; automatically providing credit toward PSLF for military service members and federal employees using federal data matches; and reviewing denied PSLF applications for errors and giving borrowers the ability to have their PSLF determinations reconsidered.

More information for borrowers will be available to borrowers at StudentAid.gov/PSLFWaiver.

Related Links

U.S. Education Department Press Release

https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/us-department-education-announces-transformational-changes-public-service-loan-forgiveness-program-will-put-over-550000-public-service-workers-closer-loan-forgiveness 

Inside Higher Ed

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/10/07/department-outlines-changes-public-service-loan-forgiveness


Heather Zimar
Categories :
  • Advocacy
  • Financial Aid and FAFSA
  • Veterans and Service Members
Tags :
  • education department
  • Federal relations
  • loan forgiveness
  • Public Service Loan Forgiveness program
  • student loans
  • Veterans and service members issues
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