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The Effects of Schedule Changes
(Debt Information)

Generally overpayments of VA benefits are the responsibility of the student. However, there are instances under the Post 9/11 GI Bill® when an over-payment is created on a school and funds need to be refunded to VA.

A debt is established on a school when:
  • The student never attended classes for which he/she was certified regardless of the reason for non-attendance
  • The student completely withdraws on or before the first day of the term. If student reduces, the debt is a student debt
  • The school received payment for the wrong student
  • The school received a duplicate payment
  • The school submitted an amended enrollment certification and reported reduced tuition and fee charges, reduced Yellow Ribbon amount, or reduced both. (Reductions based on student's action should be reported on a 1999B with the changes in the enrollment and will result in a debt to the student.)
  • The student died during the term, or before start of the term
  • VA issued payment above the amount certified on the enrollment certification that was used to process the payment (VA data entry error)
A debt is established on the student for tuition/fees/yellow ribbon when:
  • The student withdrew after the first day of the term (FDOT)
  • If the student completely withdrew on the FDOT, treat as if student never attended
  • The student reduced hours whether the reduction occurred before or during the term
  • If the student attended at least one day of any of the classes certified and a payment has been issued, any debt created by the reduction/withdrawal should be charged to the student
  • The school submitted a change in enrollment (1999b) and reported a reduction in tuition, fees, and/or Yellow Ribbon due to student action reducing or terminating training.
  • If a student drops a course and adds a course so that there is no net change in training time, any change to tuition, fees, and/or Yellow Ribbon is a student debt.
    • Schools must refund tuition and fee payments to students in accordance with their established refund policies, so that the students can resolve over-payments.

The information provided above is from the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs School Certifying Official Handbook.

Contact information for VA:

For information on what caused a debt, contact the Education Call Center at the VA Regional Office:

VA Regional Office
PO Box 8888
Muskogee, OK 74402-8888
1-888-442-4551 (phone)
918-781-7863 (fax)

Education Case Managers are available 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Central Time, Monday through Friday. The system's automated functions can provide information about benefits, applications, etc., and are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

For Debt Collection Information, contact the VA Debt Management Center (DMC):

VA Debt Management Center
P.O. Box 11930
St. Paul, MN 55111-0930
1-800-827-0648 (phone)
www.va.gov/debtman

Business hours are 7:30 am to 12:15 pm and 12:45 pm to 6:00 pm, Central Time. Mondays and the first business day of the month are always the busiest. The best times to call on those days are 10:30 am to 12:15 pm and 1:15 pm to 3:00 pm, Central Time.

If you cannot reach the DMC by phone, try later in the day or consider e-mailing: https://ask.va.gov/. There is specific information about debt resolution on the DMC web-site.