Requesting GI Bill® Benefit Exhaustion

Proof of GI Bill® Benefits Ineligibility/Exhaustion

Proof of eligibility or ineligibility for tuition-paying GI Bill® Benefits will be required to process Hazlewood Exemption benefits for some students. Tuition-paying GI Bill® benefits are the Post-9/11 GI Bill® (Chapter 33) for veterans or dependents, and Veteran Readiness and Employment (VR&E, Chapter 31) for veterans.

Based on the dates of service on the veteran’s DD214, it is possible that the veteran is/was eligible for tuition-paying GI Bill® Benefits and/or the veteran was able to transfer Post-9/11 GI Bill® (Chapter 33) Benefits to a dependent. Therefore, we need documentation showing the student is not eligible for the Post-9/11 GI Bill® (Chapter 33), or that the student was eligible and has exhausted the benefit.

• Veterans applying to use their own Hazlewood Exemption must submit proof if their DD Form 214/DD-214 separation date is September 11, 2001, or later.
• Spouses and Children applying for the Hazlewood Exemption must submit proof if the veteran’s DD Form 214/DD-214 separation date is August 1, 2009, or later.

 

Submitting Proof of GI Bill® Benefits Ineligibility

Proof can be shown with an official letter from the VA. Visit the VA’s GI Bill eligibility website and apply for the Post-9/11 GI Bill® (Chapter 33). If you are ineligible for the benefit, the VA will issue you a denial letter, which you can then upload under the ‘Additional Documents’ section of our Hazlewood Application. If you are eligible for the benefit, the VA will issue you a Certificate of Eligibility, and you will need to apply to use the Post-9/11 GI Bill® instead.

If you have applied for or used the Post-9/11 GI Bill® before, you can just log into your VA account and download your exhaustion/denial letter or take a screenshot of the Post-9/11 Statement of Benefits web page showing you have no entitlement remaining.

If you have never applied for the Post-9/11 GI Bill®, please note that it can take the VA a couple of weeks to process the request and issue the appropriate document. Take that timing into account.

If you have any questions regarding the VA’s website or the application for the Post-9/11 GI Bill® itself, please call the VA at 1 (888-442-4551).

If you received another type of GI Bill® benefit (MGIB Chapter 30, DEA Chapter 35 or MGIB-SR Chapter 1606), you may use the Hazlewood Exemption and the non-tuition GI Bill® benefit concurrently. A copy of the GI Bill® Certificate of Eligibility is required. Submitting a UT GI Bill® Questionnaire requesting benefit certification is required for each semester you plan to use that GI Bill® benefit and the Hazlewood Exemption concurrently. You can submit your UT GI Bill® Questionnaire for each term after you have registered for your courses.

 

Requesting a GI Bill® Benefits Denial Letter

If you have not received a letter of exhaustion or denial for Post-9/11 GI Bill® (Chapter 33) Benefits, you must apply at VA.gov to receive that letter. If you receive another type of GI Bill® benefit (MGIB Chapter 30, DEA Chapter 35 or MGIB-SR Chapter 1606), you may need to apply again for the denial letter.

If you’re having trouble getting your denial letter/form from the VA website, these steps and screenshots can help you navigate the website. While some of these steps/screenshots might look familiar if you have tried to get the letter before, some of the answers to the questions are a bit counter intuitive. Please be sure to follow the steps as outlined.

• Go to the VA’s Apply to use transferred education benefits.
• Scroll down to “How do I apply?” and click the “Find your education benefits form” button.

• Select ‘Applying for a new benefit’.

• Select ‘No’ when it asks if you are the veteran.

• When the system asks if you have had benefits transferred to you, select ‘Yes’ even if the veteran has never transferred any benefits to you or is not eligible to transfer them. This will generate the correct letter. (By choosing ‘no’, the system thinks you are applying for something else. By choosing ‘yes’, the system will look and see that you are ‘incorrect’ in stating this and generate a denial letter.)

If the veteran had transferred the benefits to you and you have used them up, it will generate an exhaustion letter. If you have never had the benefits transferred to you, it will generate a denial letter. Whichever is applicable to you, either of these can be used in the Hazlewood application.

• Select ‘Apply now’.

• Sign in to you VA account. If you do have a VA account you will need to create one.

• You should be able to complete the request from this point and generate the denial letter. If the website is not responding correctly, you can call the VA at 1 (888-442-4551), their education hotline which handles education benefits and this part of the website more than any other VA contact numbers would.