Some WSU students utilizing the GI Bill to pay for tuition and housing are facing delays in payment. Certificates for chapters 33, 35, 30, 1606 and 31 submitted in late November or early December were affected.

“[It is] frightening to the students because a lot of students rely on that to pay their bills,” said Penny Martinez, WSU Pullman’s Veterans and Military Affiliated Student Services manager. “If it’s not coming in, then we have a lot of students in crisis.”

In accordance with United States Code, students who have university tuition or housing paid late due to a processing delay can still attend classes and live in dorms without any late fees.

Pullman VMASS has been working with the Office of the Registrar, the Bursar’s Office, the Dean of Students, Housing and Residence Life and landlords to help students through the delays in payment.

“We can work with landlords off campus one on one, if they’ll talk to us, but they don’t have to,” Martinez said. “But we try to forewarn everyone as much as we know and as much as we can forewarn them about.”

A glitch in the VA processing system after an update in the fall caused some submitted certifications to never be processed. Some were even lost.

The issue was noticed in early January when members of a National Association of Student Personnel Administrators forum noticed VA education certifications were not being processed, Martinez said. After 10 days of complaints from School Certifying Officials across the nation, the VA discovered there was an issue.

The VA is working to find the lost certifications, according to a Jan. 16 Veterans and Military Affiliated Students Services email.

The VA said the delays should not impact January payments. However, Martinez said the first payments are typically delayed until the end of the first full school month of the semester.