The Army said Friday it would refund money to soldiers who may have to pay for college courses themselves this fall, as glitches in the Army’s tuition assistance portal had left hundreds of soldiers unable to access those funds.

Army IgnitED, which connects soldiers with federal funds to cover the cost of college courses and other certification programs, has been plagued by technical difficulties for years. Now, an attempt to connect the online portal to Army personnel records appears to have created a new set of problems for troops in the weeks leading up to the fall semester.

These hurdles could force soldiers to delay their education or pay thousands of dollars out of pocket to continue classes. Some schools may choose to delay payment until the Army can get its funding back on track.

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Soldiers who choose to pay their tuition out of their own pocket can apply for tuition assistance through their education center, Army spokeswoman Heather Hagan said Aug. 16.

“The education service staff at the education centers are ready to assist the soldiers with these requests,” she said.

Since Army IgnitED and the Integrated Personnel and Pay System-Army (IPPS-A) were connected on July 16, about 200 help desk tickets have been submitted regarding system access or data accuracy, Hagan said. That’s less than 1% out of nearly 30,000 tuition assistance applications and 5,000 admissions assistance applications processed since the integration, she said.

The number of troops affected could be higher if problems occurred with other issues but no help desk tickets were submitted.

The Army hopes that servicewide integration of IPPS-A and Army IgnitED would streamline the student aid application process by allowing the portal to pull accurate and current personnel data directly from IPPS-A, Hagan explained.

“The integration will increase the frequency of Army IgnitED system updates from once a day to multiple times a day, so updates take effect the same day for all Soldiers,” she said.

But not everyone is benefiting from this change. Some soldiers have complained on social media about missing and incorrect data, the system misinterpreting correct commands entered into IPPS-A, and local departments not knowing how to resolve their problems, to name a few.

Hagan acknowledged that the “biggest challenge is ensuring the accuracy of personnel data at the unit level.”

“We work with Soldiers to determine the cause of their individual issues and help them resolve them,” she said. “We encourage Soldiers and units to ensure their personal personnel files are up to date while we work to resolve technical issues as quickly as possible.”

On the Army IgnitED Facebook page, a commenter was informed on August 13 that he would have to drop an upcoming course because he could not access the portal or apply for financial aid. The issue was “backlogged” but there was “currently no estimated time for resolution.” The service advised him to submit a financial aid application later when he had access to his account again.

When asked how long it would take to resolve the issues created by the technology merger, Hagan said: “The integration of the two systems is currently working as planned and most applications are being processed smoothly.”

Most help desk tickets for data discrepancies or account access issues are closed within 24 to 48 hours, Hagan said.

“Soldiers are encouraged to log into both their IPPS-A and Army IgnitED accounts and verify their accuracy,” she added.

About 100,000 beneficiaries use the Army’s tuition assistance program each year. The initiative – considered an important tool for recruiting and retaining soldiers because it lowers the cost of higher education and reduces the need for student loans – offers soldiers up to $250 per semester hour, capped at $4,000 per year.

Troops seeking assistance in gaining qualifications to obtain occupational certifications such as a commercial driver’s license or to complete other short-term programs also use Army IgnitED for financial help. While 64,000 soldiers have used these funds since the initiative launched in 2020, the service is considering cutting the program to curb rising costs.

“The military has serious recruiting problems. So you want to cut benefits for those you want to recruit? That doesn’t make sense,” California Rep. John Garamendi, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee’s preparedness panel, said on CNN in April.

Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said at a hearing before the House Budget Committee on April 10 that the Army has not yet made a decision on the fate of tuition and college admissions assistance.

Army IgnitED replaced its predecessor, GoArmyEd, with a disastrous launch in 2021. Myriad glitches that made it difficult for soldiers to access their educational benefits took two years to fix, catching the attention of members of Congress and putting the onus on military leaders to provide answers.

In December 2021, in the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act, Congress pressed Army officials to announce their projections for when Army IgnitED would be fully operational, as well as when troops and schools would be reimbursed for costs incurred by the system’s flaws. According to Army Times, the Army estimated that this date would occur in late 2023.

Soldiers have struggled with more system issues this year. In May, before the IPPS-A integration, the service said a bug redirected users to a logout screen when they tried to enter the system.

That same month, the Army announced that a data feed issue caused some required information in Army IgnitED accounts – such as a person’s civilian education, occupational code or the end date of their service contract – to remain blank. The service again referred soldiers to their local education center for help.

IPPS-A has also been plagued with technical difficulties since its phased rollout in 2019. The system aimed to consolidate the Army’s administrative software onto one platform, but has so far been unreliable for soldiers, plaguing troops with sloppy data management and significant health insurance issues.

Anyone having problems with Army IgnitED should contact the Helpdesk at 276-231-0938 or [email protected].

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