search

department-of-veterans-affairs / va.gov-team

Public resources for building on and in support of VA.gov. Visit complete Knowledge Hub:
https://depo-platform-documentation.scrollhelp.site/index.html
282 stars 199 forks source link

Education rewriting: Rework Apply to restore GI Bill benefits page #41862

Open RLHecht opened 2 years ago

RLHecht commented 2 years ago

Issue Description

As part of the effort to migrate legacy education pages onto VA.gov, we need to continue work on the page for Apply to restore Gi Bill benefits.

This page was previously built in Drupal but will need to be reworked to ensure it meets our current style for benefit detail pages and plain language standards.

Danielle did substantial edits to other rates pages in the epic #9302 that may be helpful to review if there are similar changes that should be made here.

Drupal page: preview-prod.vfs.va.gov/preview?nodeId=5573 Old ticket with link to legacy page and other info: #8641

Tasks

Acceptance Criteria

RLHecht commented 2 years ago

@katherine-fung Here's a PDF of the page until you're in Drupal: https://app.zenhub.com/files/133843125/6bc95f23-c05e-4e0e-8f3f-4ddba5eadb0b/download

katherine-fung commented 2 years ago

@RLHecht -

I have some questions for the stakeholder about getting education benefits restored cc @bethpottsVADEPO

  1. If someone's school or program closes, do they need to file a benefits restoration claim in order to keep getting MHA payments until the end of the term or for 120 days after school ends?

Here's what the page says right now:

"I'm using the Post-9/11 GI Bill, will I still get my monthly housing allowance?

MHA will be payable until the end of the term, quarter, or semester that you attended during the program or school permanent closure; or 120 days after the school or program ends (whichever is sooner). There is no entitlement charge for MHA payments made during this time period."

**2a. Do people need to file a claim to have their benefits restored if their school temporarily closed or suspended their program between 3/1/20 and 6/1/22 due to COVID?

2b. If someone's school temporarily closed or suspended their program between 3/1/20 and 6/1/22 due to COVID, how much of their benefits gets restored?**

Here is what the page currently says [https://www.benefits.va.gov/GIBILL/FGIB/Restoration.asp]:

"What happens if my school is closed temporarily due to COVID-19? If your school is temporarily closed, VA will continue to pay your benefits through the end of the term or 28 days, whichever is sooner."

Here's what the form to restore your benefits says [https://www.vba.va.gov/pubs/forms/VBA-22-0989-ARE.pdf]:

"Use this form to apply for restoration of entitlement for Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) education benefits used at a school that has permanently closed or had its approval to receive VA benefits withdrawn or, due to COVID-19 and between March 1, 2020 and June 1, 2022 has closed temporarily or suspended your program of study... With limited exception, the VA can restore entitlement only for the period of enrollment in which you did not receive credit (or in which you lost training time). Generally, this means that entitlement can only be restored for the single term you were enrolled in when your program was suspended, your school closed temporarily or permanently, or lost its approval to receive VA benefits, as described above."

3. Can we tell people how much time it takes on average for the VA to review a claim for restoring education benefits?

katherine-fung commented 2 years ago

Hi @laurwill,

I'm in the middle of this rework and I have 3 questions for the stakeholder [above]. Do you want to look over the work so far, and see if you have any other questions for the stakeholder so we can ask them in one email?

This page is about how to get your education benefits restored:

My draft in Google docs: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kRzAtFsy_01VbteSRRt1AH-s39mkfzek_KaxeNdMNeQ/edit

Original source page: https://www.benefits.va.gov/gibill/fgib/restoration.asp

Drupal draft by previous content team: preview-prod.vfs.va.gov/preview?nodeId=5573

katherine-fung commented 2 years ago

Questions for @bethpottsVADEPO and stakeholder:

For Beth - Should we prioritize SEO keywords in the intros for these education re-writes? If so, we'll go back and do keyword research for the 3 pages.

For Beth/stakeholder - can you confirm the requirements for restoring someone's benefits for their entire program if their school closed between 1/1/2015 and 8/16/2015? If they were able to transfer credits to a new school, will the VA still restore their benefits? And is that special provision still in effect?

katherine-fung commented 12 months ago

Noting that edu stakeholders let us know that changes are coming to restoration of entitlement 10/1/2023. They will probably update the legacy page (https://www.benefits.va.gov/GIBILL/FGIB/Restoration.asp), which we can reference when we return to this work.