Avoiding Overpayment

Most overpayments can be avoided by checking with Chemeketa Veterans' Services as soon as you enroll each term to confirm that your courses qualify you to receive benefits and by notifying us promptly when you make any change in your enrollment.

Student Actions that my result in an overpayment of VA benefits:

1. Withdrawing from a course after the fourth week of the term. You will have to establish that you withdrew for a reason that was beyond your control.
2. Receiving a non-punitive grade. Chemeketa defines M, N, X, NP, R, and I (VA allows one year for I to be changed to a punitive grade before creating an overpayment situation) as non-punitive grades. You will have to establish that you received the grade due to circumstances beyond your control.
3. Failure to have an incomplete grade changed to a letter grade within the year allowed by the VA.
4. Failure to notify Chemeketa Veteran Services that you will not be attending a term for which you have requested to receive benefits.
5. Requesting an 'R' grade because you repeated a course and received a better grade. 'R' grades are non-punitive (not calculated into GPA), and are not certifiable for VA Benefits.

EXPLANATION OF MITIGATING CIRCUMSTANCES:

The law requires that the VA must collect all benefits paid to a beneficiary for a course for which the grade assigned is not used in computing the requirements for graduation, including a course from which the beneficiary withdraws, unless there are mitigating circumstances.

This means that if you drop a course, unless you can show the VA that there are mitigating circumstances, you must return all the money paid to you for pursuit of that course from the start of the term, not merely from the date you dropped the course.

Examples of acceptable mitigating circumstances are prolonged illness, severe illness or death in your immediate family, and unscheduled changes in your employment or work schedule.

Examples of unacceptable mitigating circumstances include withdrawal to avoid a failing grade, dislike of an instructor, and too many courses attempted.

Note: You will normally be required to submit evidence to support your mitigating circumstances before they will be accepted by the VA.

Actions taken by the VA once an overpayment is created:

1. Add interest charges and collection fees to your debt.
2. Withhold future benefits and apply them to your debt.
3. Turn your debt over to a private collection agency.
4. File suit in federal court to collect your debt.
5. Collect the debt from your federal income tax refund

Updated June 2007 by Marketing and Student Recruitment.