FROM MILITARY.COM...

One small and seem­ingly insignif­i­cant change to the Post 9/11 GI Bill could actu­ally cost unsus­pect­ing vet­er­ans thou­sands in out-of-pocket tuition and fees. Known as the "last payer" clause, the change states that the VA will only pay the remain­ing tuition and fee bal­ance after all other schol­ar­ships, Pell Grants, fed­eral and state stu­dent loans etc.

Here is the clause in the new law:

The VA will pay the actual net cost for in-State tuition and fees assessed by the insti­tu­tion for the pro­gram of edu­ca­tion after the appli­ca­tion of-

- any waiver of, or reduc­tion in, tuition and fees; and

-  any schol­ar­ship, or other Fed­eral, State, insti­tu­tional, or employer-based aid or assis­tance (other than loans and any funds pro­vided under sec­tion 401(b) of the Higher Edu­ca­tion Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1070a)) that is pro­vided directly to the insti­tu­tion and specif­i­cally des­ig­nated for the sole pur­pose of defray­ing tuition and fees;

For a stu­dent vet­eran who has 36 months of qual­i­fy­ing post 9/11 active ser­vice - mak­ing him or her eli­gi­ble for 100 per­cent of the P911 GI Bill ben­e­fit - this is no big deal. But, this could result in thou­sands of dol­lars in unex­pected tuition costs for a vet­eran with less than 36 months .

The fol­low­ing is a syn­op­sis of a case in which a vet­eran has earned only 70 per­cent of the Post-9/11 GI Bill:

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