There has been a lot of tweaking and adjusting to the GI bill in the last forty years. Recently there have been changed that have been implemented that either are new or are not widely known. Some of these benefits are lucrative and it pays to know about them and how they will benefit a person who chooses to enlist on Active duty in the Armed Forces. Some of these different benefits include:
Transfer of Benefits: This is an initial program being tested by the U.S. Army, and is being closely watched for possible expansion to the entire Armed Forces. Right now if you are serving in the United States Army and you serving in a specialty that has a critical need, if you agree to an additional term of service and re enlist then you can transfer up to 18 months (about half of your MGIB benefits) of benefits to your spouse. Each of the Armed Services has the authority to do this (transfer MGIB benefits) but most of them are waiting to see how the program works out with the Army. But if you are in the Army you can in some cases transfer up to half of your Montgomery GI Active duty benefits to your spouse.
Accelerated Benefits: If you are involved in a job that qualifies as high tech, and it falls in a specific range of jobs, you may be eligible for accelerated benefits. These are Benefits that may total up to six thousand dollars, and can be used toward obtaining a job or training in a field or position of a high tech nature. Specific details can be obtained by checking with your recruiter, but you may be eligible for up to $6,000 dollars in Educational benefits.
Military Kicker/Buy Up program: This is a program that will allow a qualifying Servicemember to make additional voluntary contributions to their Montgomery GI Bill fund, and then after they are separated from Active Duty they are then eligible for a higher rate of MGIB funding. This is a voluntary program available in each of the five armed services. To qualify you agree to: add an additional voluntary MGIB contribution to your benefits of $600 dollars. This is in addition to the mandatory amount of $1200 dollars that everyone participating in the MGIB program.
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If you contribute this additional amount, you may qualify for up to $150 dollars a month of additional MGIB benefits. Over the course of your Montgomery GI Bill this could amount to up to $4500 dollars in additional benefits.