There are various educational benefits available for Dependents and Active Duty Service members available out there. Dependents Educational Assistance can provide up to forty-five months of educational benefits and funding to attend college or university, or participate in approved training programs. The specific benefits can be used for on the job training, apprenticeship programs, or degree and certificate programs. If you are a spouse of an active duty or veteran Servicemember, under certain conditions correspondence courses and refresher courses may be approved. To be eligible for these services and benefits, a person must be:
Eligibility
You must be the spouse, Son or Daughter of:
-A Servicemember that is totally and permanently disabled from a service connected disability. The disability must be from serving on active duty in the Armed Forces.
-A Servicemember who was forcibly interned or detained by a foreign government or power. This detainment has to be while the Service member was on active duty.
-A Servicemember who was captured by a hostile force while on Active Duty.
-A Servicemember who is currently missing in action or who is listed as killed in action.
And effective in December of 2006:
-A Servicemember who is receiving outpatient treatment or who is receiving hospital care for a service connected total and permanent disability. This disability is one likely to lead to separation.
If you are the son or daughter, or spouse of a qualifying Servicemember, and you wish to receive these type of benefits, you have some qualifying factors. You have to be between the ages of eighteen to twenty six years. If you are in this age range but married it does not disqualify you from these benefits. If you are currently on active duty yourself you have to wait till you are not on active duty anymore.
If you pursue these educational benefits for training after serving in the military yourself your discharge must have been under honorable conditions. Under some circumstances the VA will extend your eligibility period by the amount of time in months that you spend on Active Duty. Normally this will not extend beyond your 31st birthday. If you are a spouse, different eligibility time periods exist. Normally ten years from the date the VA finds you eligible or ten years from the death of the qualifying veteran. If your spouse died while serving on active duty, benefits under the DEA program usually expire twenty years from the date of death.
