If you have served in the United States Armed Forces, you may be eligible for veterans’ burial benefits that can help cover your family’s costs of funeral and burial arrangements when you die. The benefits available to you will depend on the type and length of your service. Understanding whether and how you can qualify can help you with your estate and funeral planning.
What Burial Benefits Are Available?
The Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) is the branch of the VA that is responsible for handling veterans’ compensation. The VBA offers benefits to veterans by providing compensation through the Burial and Plot Interment Allowance. This is a flat rate of compensation that can help cover the funeral costs of an eligible veteran.
The amount of compensation available will depend on a number of factors, such as:
- Which year the veteran died
- Whether the veteran’s death was connected to their service or not
- If the veteran was hospitalized by the VA when they died
Precise compensation amounts can be found on this VA fact sheet.
Who Is Eligible for Compensation?
In order to be eligible for burial benefits through the VA, the veteran must have been discharged under conditions other than dishonorable. Furthermore, they must meet at least one of the following conditions:
- Their death came as a result of a service-connected disability.
- They were receiving VA disability compensation or pension at their time of death. Otherwise, if they were entitled to receive a VA disability or pension, they were instead receiving their full military retirement or disability pay.
- Their death happened during a period of VA hospitalization, or they were receiving care under a VA contract at a non-VA facility.
- They died while they were traveling at VA expense to or from a facility where they were to undergo examination, treatment, or care.
- They had made or reopened a claim for VA compensation or pension at their time of death, and they would have been eligible for benefits from a date before they died.
- They died as a patient at a VA-approved state nursing home on or after October 9, 1996.
By default, the burial benefits will be paid to the veteran’s surviving spouse or civil partner. If there is none, they will be paid to the veteran’s child, parent, or the executor of the veteran’s estate.
Burial in a National Cemetery
Some veterans are also eligible for burial in one of 131 national cemeteries. This right is available to service members who died while on active duty and to those who didn’t receive a dishonorable discharge and served for 24 continuous months or the full period they were called to active duty.
Contact our Tampa Probate Attorneys
If you are uncertain about the status of your eligibility for burial benefits, or if you want more information, contact our Tampa probate attorneys. We can help you understand all the variables so that you and your family can have the peace of mind that comes with knowing that a portion of your interment services will be taken care of. To schedule an appointment, call (813) 438-8503.