Two months after an IT hiccup at the Department of Veterans Affairs left a significant portion of GI Bill recipients without their anticipated payments for school and housing, some advocates have a message for the VA: Turn the GI Bill hotline back on.

Those missing payments in the wake of the rollout of a new processing system are spouses or children of veterans who have died, are missing, or have a permanent and total service-connected disability — grouped together under the VA’s Chapter 35 . Up to 75,000 of these claims may be unpaid, according to Ashlynne Haycock-Lohmann, director of Government and Legislative Affairs for the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors.

And while VA officials lay the blame for the protracted payments delay largely with congressional Democrats, whom the

See Full Page