§3327 Election to receive educational assistance

Summary

You can choose to get your education benefits under the Post-9/11 program (chapter 33) if, on August 1, 2009, you were already entitled to or eligible for other VA or military education benefits (whether you used some or none of them), or if you are a service member who was making required contributions or who lost entitlement because of a prior election. When you make the choice, you must meet the chapter 33 eligibility rules on the date you elect. If you were a service member making required contributions, those contributions stop starting the first month after your election. If you had previously transferred months of your old benefit to a dependent and some of those months are still unused, you can cancel all or part of that transfer and get those months back for chapter 33; any months you do not cancel stay with the dependent. Your total months under chapter 33 will equal the months you had unused under the old program at the time you choose, plus any months you took back from a transfer. If a particular old benefit you could use is not available under chapter 33, you keep the right to use that old benefit instead, but each month you use it counts against your chapter 33 months at a one-for-one rate. If you made contributions or fall in certain older categories, you get an extra lump-sum payment equal to your total contributions multiplied by the fraction of your remaining (and revoked) chapter 30 months over 36; that amount is paid with your last monthly stipend before your chapter 33 entitlement ends. Any extra or supplemental payments you already had stay with you under chapter 33 in the same term-based amounts. The Secretary may, starting January 1, 2017, choose for you if your choice is clearly against your interest or you don’t choose; the Secretary must tell you within 7 days and give you 30 days to change or cancel that choice, explaining why. Your own election to switch or to revoke a transfer is final and cannot be undone.