What To Expect When Involving 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 actual amount of reimbursement provided depends on the cause of death. If the death was not related to the veteran's service, then the VA provides two separate payments. One is a payment of up to $700 for expenses attributable to burials and funerals, and another $700 is offered as a plot-interment allowance if the burial plot 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.
There are 131 national cemeteries, and any one may serve as a veteran's final resting place. In addition to the gravesite, the government honors the veteran with a marker or headstone and a burial flag. The family is also entitled to a Presidential Memorial Certificate, and they will not have to bear the costs of grave opening/closing and perpetual care.
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.
