Chapter 35 Benefits Recipients Notice
VA has automatically verified all Chapter 35 enrollments for December 2025. December payments are expected to be processed by the end of the first week of January. Beneficiaries can expect to be paid by Jan. 7, 2026.
Starting at the end of January 2026, Chapter 35 beneficiaries will be required to verify their enrollment each month to receive their benefit payments. A beneficiary must verify their enrollment for VA to begin processing the monthly benefit. Once verified, payment processing can take five to seven calendar days.
We recognize that the monthly enrollment verification requirement will be a major change for many Chapter 35 beneficiaries. Therefore, VA has implemented a comprehensive communication strategy to notify beneficiaries of this requirement and help prepare them for the new process. This includes targeted messaging asking beneficiaries to review and, if necessary, update their contact information (email, cell phone and mailing address) in their VA profile. We have also provided them with information about the enrollment verification process to help beneficiaries understand the requirement and learn about the monthly enrollment verification options that will be available to them.
VA is also working with schools and training providers to provide them with timely updates about forthcoming enrollment verification requirements for Chapter 35 beneficiaries. We have asked our education and training partners to also assist with our efforts in ensuring that students are aware of the new process by providing them with toolkits and pre-drafted language that they can use in communications to impacted students.
VA will continue notifying beneficiaries in a phased approach throughout January 2026. This will include additional messages to Chapter 35 beneficiaries to keep contact information up-to-date, website updates to highlight enrollment verification requirements and options, and multiple social media posts to underscore enrollment verification requirements and options.
Enrollment verification is required by statute and requires a beneficiary to verify with VA their continued attendance each month in order to continue to receive benefit payments. A beneficiary can verify their enrollment through text, email, online, through the Ask VA system, or by calling the Education Call Center at 888-442-4551.
Trump EO reinstates GI Bill benefits to Veterans discharged for refusing COVID vaccine
11/17/2025 10:20 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON — The Department of Veterans Affairs today announced that potentially thousands of Veterans who were discharged from service by the Biden Administration for refusing the COVID vaccine may regain eligibility for GI Bill education benefits.
In January, President Trump issued Executive Order 14184, Reinstating Service Members Discharged Under the Military’s COVID-19 Vaccination Mandate. Following that, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth directed the military departments to facilitate, among other things, discharge upgrades for individuals involuntarily separated solely for refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine and whose service was characterized as less than fully honorable.
The Biden Administration separated more than 8,000 service members from the military because they had refused to comply with the Department of Defense (now Department of War) COVID vaccine mandate. More than half of these warriors received a discharge that was characterized as less than fully honorable, which may have made them ineligible for GI Bill education benefits.
Following Department of War reviews, 899 of these Veterans are now eligible for GI Bill education benefits, and thousands more could also regain GI Bill eligibility thanks to the executive order.
In September, VA sent letters to Veterans who have already received upgraded discharges to inform them of their potential eligibility for GI Bill education benefits. VA encourages all Veterans who were discharged from service for refusing the COVID vaccine to seek an upgraded status and apply for GI Bill benefits.
“The Biden Administration’s authoritarian COVID mandates upended the lives and livelihoods of thousands of service members and Veterans,” said VA Secretary Doug Collins. “We are proud to help implement President Trump’s executive order and make these Veterans whole again.”
“One of the most atrocious attacks on our military by the previous administration was the discharging and targeting of perfectly healthy warfighters who refused to take an experimental vaccine implemented by an illegal mandate. We must never let that happen again, and we must also right the wrongs of the past in order to restore trust. We at the Department of War and the VA are grateful for President Trump’s Executive Order reinstating GI Bill benefits for those veterans who were targeted for refusing the illegal COVID-19 vaccine mandate.” — Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.
What Veterans should know:
• Veterans who believe they were discharged inappropriately or believe their military personnel records still reflect an error or injustice (for example, separation under the COVID-19 mandate) may request review from a Discharge Review Board or Board for Correction of Military or Naval Records. For more information, visit the Military Department Review Boards website at https://www.milreviewbds.mil/.
• Once Veterans receive official notification that their discharge status has been upgraded to fully honorable, they can submit a new education benefits claim to VA.
For more information on VA education benefits, visit www.va.gov/education/ or call 800-GI-BILL.
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