Veterans of Foreign Wars deputy director Patrick Murray on Wednesday called for more resources to be put into the Department of Veteran Affairs’ information technology system after a technical glitch delayed GI Bill payments to thousands of veterans.
“[The] VA is working on a very outdated IT system. Some of the changes to the Forever GI bill last year required IT upgrades. What they’re working with is a system that was built for arithmetic, and it’s now being asked to work calculus,” Murray told Hill.TV’s Buck Sexton and Krystal Ball on “Rising.”
“There needs to be money and attention paid to this outdated system so that problems like this don’t happen in the future,” he continued.
CBS News reported that as of Nov. 8, there were over 82,000 pending education claims, marking a 43 percent increase in pending claims from last year.
“Right now, today, there are 2,500 student veterans that still haven’t received any payment since the beginning of the semester,” Murray said. “At one point, the highest number we had reported was 180,000.”
“They’ve been pairing that down, you know, day by day, to try to get everybody the money that they’re owed,” he continued.
The VA said in a statement that it is “committed to providing a solution that is reliable, efficient and effective.”
The House Committee on Veterans Affairs is set to hold a hearing on Thursday aimed at probing the glitch.
— Julia Manchester
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