Veterans Report G.I. Bill Fund Delays

"The new benefit enticed more than 277,000 veterans and their eligible relatives to apply for assistance. Such a flood of claims had been expected, but the veterans department, with its antiquated technology, has struggled to keep up with it."

"This week, the department reported that it had made tuition payments to colleges on just 20,000 of those applications, and had made an additional 13,000 payments directly to veterans for various expenses. The department said that it was taking an average of 35 days to process claims but that the wait could stretch to eight weeks and possibly longer."

“Taking into account the complexity of this bill, we’ve done about as well as could have been done,” said Keith Wilson, the department’s education service director. “That doesn’t alleviate our concern that we’re not meeting everybody’s expectations.”