VA Debt Management Center (DMC)

School Certifying Official Training

Updated March 2025

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Agenda

• DMC overview
• Digital GI Bill (DGIB) Transition Updates
• Debt establishment
• Understand collection processes
• Debt resolution options
• Risks of non-payment
• Questions

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Organization Chart

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DMC Mission

Provide distinctive, high quality accounts receivable services through a compassionate and value-added approach, empowering our stakeholders to focus on core missions.

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DGIB Updates: DMC Processes

After Modernization Upgrade

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• Separate debt balances for each term per facility per student in VA system
• Effective July 8^th, 2024, DMC uses additional deduction codes other than 75
• Deduction code is needed for pay.va.gov payments or if check is mailed without remittance from DMC letter
• Certain tuition and fees and Yellow Ribbon debts will be recouped from subsequent, congruent (there is at least one day of overlap) payments for the same student

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DGIB Updates: Pending Issues

• Referrals to TOP are currently suspended

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• Some letters cannot be issued yet

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• Some debt fixes are pending- suspended debts will still appear on debt lists but are not being collected

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Debt Establishment

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Debt Establishment

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Debt Establishment: Compliance Survey

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Debt Establishment Reasons

Student never attended any classes (All T/F/YR)

Reporting reduced T/F/YR amount, no change to training

(Amount of $ change )

Payment for wrong student or duplicate payment

(Erroneous amount)

Student completely withdrew on or before first day of term

(All T/F/YR)

Payment above certified amount due to VA data entry error

(Erroneous amount)

Student dropped/added a course, no net change in training time

(Amount of $ change )

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Debt Establishment Reasons

Student reduced hours before or during term

Student withdrew after first day of term

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School reported reduction in T/F/YR due to student reducing or terminating training

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Debt Establishment Reasons

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School Debt Example

• SCO certifies term 08/28/2024 – 12/16/2024, T&F $10,000.00 (for credits)
• VA pays $10,000.00 for the 08/28/2024 – 12/16/2024 term
• School reported a change to tuition and fees with no change to credits, the new tuition and fees reported was $5000
• Student then reduced training effective November 15^th with punitive grades and new tuition and fees amount is $2500
• How would you calculate this debt?

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School Debt Example continued

School Debt Calculation

• Amount due for term is $4633.03
• ($5000/109 days in the term x 93 days attended at this rate= $4266.06) plus
• ($2500/109 days in the term x 16 days attended at this rate =$366.97)
• $10,000 paid - $4633.03 due = Debt of $5366.97

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Preventing School Debts

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School Debt Collection Process

DMC sends Notice of Indebtedness letters, monitors accounts, and advises debtor of any delinquency, including the requirement to refer their account to Treasury

If DMC receives payment,

next collection letter is deferred

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School Options

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How to Pay a Debt

• Pay by check: mail the check, payment coupon(s) and/or letter to:

VA Debt Management Center

Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building

P.O. Box 11930

St. Paul, MN 55111-0930

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• Recommend no more than 25 students per check

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• Pay online: www.pay.va.gov

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• Check SCO handbook for other options

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How to Pay a Debt on www.pay.va.gov

Payee is not always 00, please verify payee on DMC letter

Payee and Person entitled name format are on DMC school debt letters

Deduction Code is not always 75, please verify on DMC letter

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Ask VA (AVA) for School Inquiries

• Update to AVA drop downs scheduled for Spring 2025

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• DMC will send out more information when the change is finalized

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Ask VA (AVA) for School Inquiries

• All school inquiries and disputes should be submitted using AVA (https://ask.va.gov/)

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• Select “Debt for benefit overpayments and health care copay bills” as the category and “Education benefit overpayments (for schools)” as the topic

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• Under “My inquiry is” select “On behalf of a Veteran”- this enables you to select School Certifying Official or Other (Business) under relationship to Veteran

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• You must sign in to AVA to select the category “Debt for benefit overpayments and health care copay bills”

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Requesting a debt list in AVA

• DMC can provide debt lists by facility code upon request

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• Since the debt list is not associated with one specific Veteran, you can choose general question to submit your debt list by facility code request

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• If you have multiple facilities, list the additional facility codes in the “What is your Question?” box

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Tips for School Inquiries

When submitting disputes and inquiries via AVA, please include:

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• One inquiry per student

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• Identifying information for the student

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• School name and facility code

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• Debt amount

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• Supporting details (front and back of cashed check, when was updated certification sent, etc.)

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DMC School Official Debt Line

• 833-720-2574 (international 612-843-6508)

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• Use for questions on Post 9/11 GI Bill Tuition and Fees debts such as:
• Term dates for a debt
• Confirm a payment was received
• Confirm an outstanding balance
• Assistance with an online payment

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• Disputes must be in writing. Submit via https://ask.va.gov/ (Select category: “Debt for benefit overpayments and health care copay bills” and topic: “Education benefit overpayments (for schools)”

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Student Options

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VA Debt Portal for Veterans

• Debt Portal: https://www.va.gov/manage-va-debt/
• Veterans can log in to view balances
• FAQ’s
• Email notifications to Veterans
• Online VA Form 5655 Financial Status Report (FSR)
• More enhancements to come

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Treasury Overview Debt Collection Tools

Treasury has two main programs for student and school debt collection

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Become a Debt Superstar (Contact DMC)

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Issue Not Getting Resolved

• Julie Lawrence – Chief Education and External Relations

Julie.Lawrence@va.gov

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• Nicole Haselberger – Assistant Chief Education and External Relations

Nicole.Haselberger@va.gov

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• Tami Dorle – Supervisory Financial Administrative Specialist

Tamara.Dorle@va.gov

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• Gary Greenwood – Management Analyst

Gary.Greenwood2@va.gov

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DMC Presentation Survey

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DMC values your time and feedback on our presentation. We would appreciate it if you’re able to complete the survey below.

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https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/DMCSCO

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Backup

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Deduction Codes for School Debts

Found on the top right of DMC letter

• Can be any of the following:

75, 63, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98

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Please also remember to verify the payee for online payments (not always 00)

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Example of Congruent Offset

Congruent Payment Recoupment Example

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• SCO certifies term 09/01/2024 – 12/15/2024,12 in-residence credits, T&F $10,000.00
• VA pays $10,000.00 for the 09/01/2024 – 12/15/2024 term
• Student drops prior to the start of the term creating debt of $10,000.00
• Same student is certified for the mini-term of 10/01/2024 – 11/15/2024 for 6 in-residence credits with a tuition and fees of $5,000.00.
• VA will not release any T&F payment and will reduce the outstanding T&F debt by $5,000.00
• If facility has already submitted a repayment of $10,000.00 to the Debt Management Center (DMC), VA will send $5,000.00 to the facility

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AVA for School Inquiries

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How to Contact TOP

Schools may contact TOP by calling the TOP Call Center:

1-800-304-3107

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To provide you with information about an offset, Treasury will need to know:

• The caller’s name, department and job title.  The job title will need to indicate a need-to-know position
• At least one of the following:
• date of the payment
• amount of the original payment
• amount of the offset

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• Make sure to obtain the Debt Account ID related to the offset from Treasury (typically ends in 0075 for school tuition) before contacting DMC about an offset

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When to Contact TOP vs. DMC

Information Treasury Has

• Debt Account ID number for a given offset (can look up debt account ID with offset info)
• Entity that referred a debt that was offset
• Information about payment that was offset

Information DMC Has

• Details about debt we referred (need Debt account ID from Treasury to identify debt)
• Student associated with referred debt
• Term dates for referred debt

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TOP Letter Example

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Federal Debt Collection Laws

• The Debt Collection Act of 1982
• Authority for collection by administrative offset

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• The Debt Collection Improvement Act (DCIA) of 1996
• Agencies required to refer delinquent non-tax debts to the Department of Treasury at 180 days

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• Digital Accountability and Transparency Act (DATA) of 2014
• Changed referral requirement for delinquent non-tax debts from 180 days to 120 days

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How to Self-Certify

1. Click on the URL or copy and paste it in your web browser. https://vba-tpss.vbatraining.org/assess/trkSignIn?refid=XSCO
2. Enter your email address and eight (8) digit facility code and click Next

(If you do not have a user profile, click New User Account and follow the steps to set up your profile.)

• Scroll down and click the Conference/Workshop/Virtual Training tab
• Select the applicable training session from the list of topics that appears on the right side of the screen by clicking Begin
• To enter Conference/Workshop/Virtual Training Title: Click the dropdown arrow and select SCO Virtual Training Session and click Submit
• Enter the start date and the end date
• Enter your Facility Name, City and State (Main Campus) and click Submit
• Certify your attendance by clicking Agree and then submit.
• Print your training certificate and keep for your records

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