We military spouses duly learn to dread the knock at the door. The folded flag. The long, strange, dark trip through the thousand things a widow or widower must do if a servicemember is killed in the line of duty. Does worrying about paying for college tuition really have to be one of those things?
This week my colleague Terry Howell (King of Military Benefits) sent me a story about how military widows don’t qualify for educational benefits from the Post 9/11 GI Bill.
Their kids do. Which is really helpful if you are the parent of a one year old and a four year old when you lose your beloved.
I didn’t know that widows don’t qualify for that benefit. Why ever not? This is just one more worry to keep military spouses up at night.
Because even though we know that the military takes care of its own, the truth is that when you are a young military widow, life is long. Survivor benefits like SGLI are generous, yet they are designed to help you get on your feet so that you can step up and become the breadwinner.
Becoming the sole breadwinner is doable, but daunting—even for people who are not stricken with grief. The truth is that many widows and widowers do not have the educational background required to support themselves and their children. Many have spent years out of the workforce in order to serve as stay home parents because that was what was best for their military family.
So when these people lose their beloved, they will probably have to retool. Yet their ability to go back to school and retrain is limited. Under the Survivors’ and Dependents’ Education Assistance (SDEA) program, spouses of the fallen are only eligible to receive federal education benefits. This program does not cover the full cost of tuition and fees although it does provide a small stipend.
Widows do not qualify for Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits. That doesn’t seem right to me. That doesn’t seem right to a lot of people. That is why Senator Jeff Merkley has proposed the Spouses of Heroes Education Act.
Under Senator Merkley’s bill, the Post-9/11 GI Bill would be amended to include spousal eligibility for families of service members who died on active duty. Spouses of these service members could receive the full cost of public, in-state undergraduate tuition and fees, plus a monthly living stipend and book allowance.
This change would not cost the taxpayer much. There are just about 3000 military widows of OEF and OIF. Many of them are already self-supporting. Many of them already have degrees. Not all of them would welcome a chance to go back to college.
Some of them would. More important is the knowledge that they could. I’m not asking for a handout for military widows. I’m asking for the loopholes to be plugged with a little logic. So that we all sleep a little better at night.
About Jacey Eckhart
Comments
MOST have-not/ did-not add Value – that "EARNED" ANY benefits there are some, few, EXceptions to this!
I am not sure what you are trying to say disgusted. Are you saying that most have not earned this? I am confused.
The spouse of a 100 percent service-connected disabled vet may go back to school with a full ride, plus a living allowance stipend funded by the VA. I imagine someone in the Government thought that the "generous" SGLI pay-out would be enough to start a new life. It's not. If your spouse happens to be an invalid, the Government is more than happy to have you go back to school in the hopes that you may better be able to take care of your burden, but if your spouse happens to be dead, well that's another matter. The surviving spouse should be able to use their deceased loved ones education benefit. A deserving gift from a grateful nation, so to speak. Maybe the Navy can stop building one of their unnecessary aircraft carriers to fund this and many other programs for decades to come. I'll hold my breath.
I believe you are misinformed Doug. I am the surviving spouse of a 100% permanently and totally disabled Vietnam veteran whose death was directly related to his combat experience. He was rated at 100% P&T for 8 years, residing in a long term VA contract nursing home when he died 23 September 2008. Yes, there are still soldiers dying due to combat some 45+ years later. I am eligible for DEA/CH 35…10 years from his date of death. I would receive $987 a month for the months that I attend school if I am a full time student (12 hours or more). This is approximately $8883 per year, about half of the benefit under Post 9-11 educational benefit. Would not call this a "full ride". There is NO stipend for a living allowance nor a stipend for books and supplies. The only recent change I have seen, besides the COLA, is that benefits will be for 81 months instead of 45 months (effective in late 2013). There is a big difference between DEA/CH 35 and Post 9-11 educational benefits. Equity for all surviving spouses is overdue. But being the spouse of a 100% P&T disabled veteran doesn't get the spouse more educational benefits before his death than after.
There are COUNTLESS organizations and state benefits, funds, ect out there to benefit Gold Star Wives as well as Silver Star families. It takes some research and dedication like everything else but the funds are available everywhere.
Use the money you got from his insurance. Everyone wants something for nothing.
Is the loss of your spouse really nothing? Wow.
Not every widow receives the insurance, or all of it. Get your facts straight before speaking. In my case, my husband divided the insurance in half, between myself and our kids, and his family. I bought a home that was big enough for each child to have their own room and had nothing left over. I don't know where people get the idea that we are rolling around in cash on our living room floors. Many of us are struggling, and paying out of pocket for school only makes it that much harder. I was forced to pay out of pocket and be reimbursed for school and many times they didn't give me what they were supposed to. Even when they did I was still required to pay a good amount of my own money. It is not always cut and dry like people believe.
We got nothing read my replies your Lucky
as in no gratuity or insurance
Had no back up plan was never informed too
Your an idiot, these are Job Benefits, and something for nothing the insurance comes form someone loosing their life… Ass Clown…
I am a military widow and as such, I can tell you that when it comes to benefits, education and otherwise, nothing is clear EVEN with a lot of research. My husband was killed in Iraq. I can give you a decent description of what I receive, but put another widow whose husband was also killed in Iraq next to me and I cannot tell you what she gets or what is available to her. Benefits are something best not discussed between widows because it always comes down to, "why does she qualify for that but I don't?" I cannot tell you how often someone will ask about a benefit they receive on a widow board and there are 20 asking what that is.
Educational benefits are a great example. I received my husband's GI Bill (Chapter 35) but other women were handed back a check with the amount their husbands paid into it (even when it had been fully paid into). Despite researching it, I still do not know why some are given access and others aren't. As a veteran myself, I was not allowed to "receive" the GI Bill twice (despite paying for it twice) so the amount I used from my own GI BILL (that I earned) was then deducted from my husband's GI Bill (which he clearly more than earned) yet some widows who never served a single day were given the full amount of their husband's GI Bill. So I deserve less because I am a veteran? Some of the scholarships available are to widows with children, but not to those of us who are not mothers. Some scholarships are available to widows as long as they are not living with a boyfriend (that conversation is a hornet's nest and best left alone). Some scholarships are exclusive to combat deaths. How many widows have lost their husbands to suicide and what is available for them?
Even now it is confusing for myself. Widows get an annual letter with a description of what their benefits are. I recently got mine showing COLA changes etc. After nearly 7 years as a widow, for the FIRST time, mine showed that I could receive federal funds for education. I will be calling to see if this amount includes my husband's GI Bill (which is very nearly gone) or if this is something different or if it is just something put on there to encourage me to call and see what is available to me (only to hear what I already know).
Long story short, yes, "there is more to the story"… much more than people understand and it is not always as cut and dry as it appears. This is the first time I have ever seen the Post-9/11GI Bill mentioned with widows so I haven't really thought about it before. I have my own personal issues with the new GI Bill, but I think that if a member of the military paid into and EARNED the right to the new GI Bill and was then killed, that benefit should then go to the widow and/or children, no matter what other resources are available. My husband was killed prior to it becoming law so no, I do not think I should get it. But I can say that if I had been given the opportunity to go to college anywhere with the benefit of paying in-state tuition, I would have made very different choices.
@Sailor 12. I feel your comment was callous and insensitive. Thank God my son has just come home safely for the fifth time. If that were not the case, I would certainly want my daughter-in-law to have access to the benefits he left behind. She would need them to take care of his children. She has certainly done way, way more than the nothing you reference. School for her has been on the back burner while she handles everything else again and again. She has been everything to their family. It offends me to hear that ‘nothing’ word in reference to her efforts.
If you want the benefits, pls talk with your local military recruiter. I'm sure that he/she will be more than happy to help you complete your application for military service.
I completed 14 yrs prior to med. sep while my spouce retired after 22 yrs.
I personally know of a widow currently going to college on her husband's GI Bill after he was KIA. I don't know all the details but "Chapter 35" sounds familiar…
I understands how this feels, I feel we serve as well being a military wife you do uniforms, kids, cooking shopping, loving, and making sure everyones happy, and their stress form work or school. When they are deployed worst, I was pregnant, when my husband was deployed, then he comes home, sent to pt, sat on curb complained of hurting and was told to get up keep running and other soldiers run at same pace, sat down second time and had a heart attack and died. We recieved no gratuity no insurance I was never warned to get a back up plan, had a little baby had to go apply for assistance, now Im going to school, and I do have to pay for my own classes and books I get some back but I dont qaulify for alot. Went to his brother wich partyied it away with in a year offered no one nothing. WE had no rent no nothing people …
We now recieve some benifits pension s.s. so forth. Looking into some scholarships I have been told may help trying to insure your familes future is alot on a person believe me…