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Basics To Learn When Thinking About Veterans Funeral Service Benefits
Veterans funeral benefits cover a whole lot more than just the immediate burial costs. The VA helps out military families with a comprehensive range of amenities and allowances for expenses associated with the death of a veteran. The family can provide a decent service and proper burial, honoring a person who laid his or her life on the line in service of the country.
All the help the government provides in this regard is basically categorized under two broad categories. The first lot comes under the reimbursements offered by the VA for funerals and burials. The National Cemetery Administration subsequently provides the gravesite and its subsequent care.
The cause of death determines how much the VA will be able to shell out in reimbursements. In cases where the death is not related to military service, the families are entitled for two payments. One $700 payment covers the cost of ceremonies and rites. A second payment is an allowance for plot-interment of up to $700 if the grave is not in a national cemetery.
If the death has come about as a result of disabilities and/or injuries sustained during military service, VA is authorized to reimburse as much as $2,000. This will be provided as a single payment instead of two separate reimbursements. The expenses that come afterwards, including the gravesite upkeep, do not have to be borne by the family.
The National Cemetery Administration has 131 national cemeteries available. Any one may serve as the last resting place for a deceased veteran, who is also given a marker or headstone along with a burial flag. The families are given Presidential Memorial Certificates, and grave opening and closing along with perpetual care is provided to the family at no cost.
Note that veterans funeral benefits are not available for dependents, even though they are entitled to a grave in the same cemetery as the veteran. The government does, however, arrange for inscribing their names and birth/death dates on the veteran's headstone. All this is done irrespective of the order of their deaths, so everything is arranged for even though advance reservations are not allowed.
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