Veterans Affairs can now make colleges pay back student overpayments

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is changing its rules for how it handles overpayments to student veterans. It can now assign financial responsibility for overpayments directly to the educational institution, not just the student.

Before this change, if a student veteran received an overpayment, the VA would try to recover the money from the student. This often meant students were on the hook for mistakes made by their schools or the VA itself. Now, the VA can go directly to the college to get the money back, which means colleges have a stronger incentive to get their paperwork right.