This week the Veterans Administration has announced that its education call center will resume taking calls five days a week. In December of last year, amid a growing backlog of education benefit claims, the VA reassigned call center personnel to assist in processing claims on Thursdays and Fridays. Since November, when call volume hit its all time peak of 1.26 million calls, the call center has seen a decline in calls of 42 percent. The VA says that the reassignment of staff was a key factor in increasing the average claims processed per day from 2,000 in August of 2009 to 7,000 per day by mid-February of this year.

According to the VA, 162,000 of the approximately 180,000 claims received for the spring semester have been processed. Additionally, all post-9/11 GI Bill claims received before January 18th of this year have been paid. Citing the timely processing of spring enrollments the VA has discontinued its advance payment program.

In a separate press release issued today, the VA announced a new advertising campaign targeting student veterans. The GI Bill advertising campaign includes half-page ads in top college publications, online and social media, print, radio, and outdoor advertising such as posters and flyers. In areas of high student and military densities public service announcements are planned on local radio stations.

“VA, student Veterans and our schools have made signigicant progress in implementing the GI Bill this spring, but we still have more to do,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. “We won’t rest until all studentVeterans have received the education benefit they earned in defense of our Nation.”