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Facts You Should Notice 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.
Everything the government does to help can be divided into two areas, or agencies. VA offers reimbursements to help with the expenses associated with funerals and other rites. The National Cemetery Administration takes over afterwards by offering a gravesite and taking care of it.
The maximum amount the VA can provide depends on the cause of death. For deaths that are not service-related, there will be two payments that may not exceed $700 each. One is a reimbursement of costs for funerals, burials and other rites. The other one is for interment of plots, available only for those not being buried 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.
A deceased veteran may be buried in one of the 131 national cemeteries. Apart from the gravesite, they are entitled to a headstone or marker paid for by the government, along with a burial flag. The family also gets a Presidential Memorial Certificate. The grave opening and closing and perpetual care are taken care of at no cost to the family.
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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