Welcome to Our Nightmare

The past few days have been a nightmare in the making. Here is a quick overview on what's been going on:

SEPTEMBER 1ST: Chad never received his $500 book stipend for the fall semester.

OCTOBER 1ST: $2300 monthly allowance (roughly, it varies every month) should have been deposited in Chad's checking account overnight. It never came.
*This monthly payment is allowance for housing and basic living expenses for GI Bill students while they are in school, which is great because many can live off this money, allowing them to put all their focus on school. This is necessary because GI Bill students typically have an intensive course-load and take classes through the summer because they aren't guaranteed financial backingfor the standard 48 months most students have to complete a Bachelor's Degree.

OCTOBER 2ND: The monthly allowance still hasn't been deposited in Chad's account, so he meets with the veterans services coordinator at Salem State University. He is told that no GI Bill students in the region received their monthly allowance for the month of October. The coordinator has not been told why, and has not been told when or if the money is coming. He has heard rumor that it is due to paperwork issues within the VA, but that is unconfirmed. He divulges that the school still hasn't received payment from the VA for summer classes taken by GI Bill students, even though we're now a month into the fall semester. Chad is told he can file for an emergency $500 from the VA while we wait to see what will happen with the money, and he is encouraged to contact our congressman. Through comments to our posts on Facebook regarding this issue, we learn that several other GI Bill students we know also never received their book stipends in September, and they confirm that they too are missing their October payment. Chad emails Congressman Tierney, and drafts a letter to Scott Brown.

OCTOBER 3RD: Chad receives and email from Congressman Tierney's aide stating that they have contacted the VA regional headquarters, as the congressman's office has been inundated with phone calls and emails regarding this issue. They have strongly advised the VA to make a press release about this, but to this point, none has been made. The aide did report back that he was told there will be a 35-45 day wait for the funds, but was not told the source of the problem. The aide offered to try to push our claim through with the VA, as we have our family to support and need the money, but he was unsure he'd have success, and while we appreciate (and need) the help, that doesn't help the other thousands of students without money. Chad mailed his letter to Scott Brown. I spoke to a friend in Tennessee who has a close friend going to school on the GI Bill who said he's dealing with the same runaround, and he heard it's a problem processing paperwork for new GI Bill students, though it doesn't seem that should effect established GI Bill students like Chad, who have never had a problem receiving their normal payments at the start of a semester. I contacted several news stations.

OCTOBER 4TH: I spoke to a friend this morning who is an intern at NECN, and they've now set up a time to come interview us today. It's time to put on my big girl panties and deal with my camera anxiety. I strongly believe people need to know this is going on. As much as it pains me to do so, I looked up the Toys for Tots request page at the advice of a friends mom in case this isn't cleared up by Christmastime. They don't take requests till November 1st though, so we'll see what happens between now and then. I also was just told by a friend who is a GI Bill student that she called again today to follow up, and was basically told to go screw and that she was being greedy. Still looking into more specifics on that exchange, but that's totally unacceptable. And a friend in Texas just shared that her GI Bill money has been messed up for quite a while now.