Nobody Left to Bury You — the County Must Act, and Must Call the VA First

What this benefit is

Who is entitled to it

• The veterans’ provision is written around an honorably discharged veteran.
• The section reaches the veteran and the veteran’s surviving spouse, and the duty hierarchy runs through the family.
• Your home is in Arizona.

1. 1Understand the order the statute sets before you assume who decides. The duty to bury devolves through a hierarchy that begins with the surviving spouse and runs through a designated agent, parents of a minor, adult children, a parent, an adult sibling, an adult grandchild, a grandparent and onwards.
2. 2If the member died while serving, look for the DD Form 93 first. Where a decedent died while serving in any branch of the armed forces, the reserve forces or the national guard and had completed a record of emergency data on DD Form 93 or its successor, the duty devolves on the person the member named on that form.
3. 3If no relative can pay or none can be found, say so to the county rather than borrowing. The statute puts the burial on the county in which the death occurs once none of the people named in subsection A is willing or financially able, or cannot be located after reasonable efforts.
4. 4Make sure the county is told the decedent was a veteran. The notification duty only bites where the decedent is known to be an honorably discharged veteran or the surviving spouse of one — so hand over the discharge papers, or tell them where the discharge was recorded with the county recorder.
5. 5Expect the county to contact the VA or a local veterans’ organisation, or both, and to give them the opportunity to provide for the burial or other arrangements. That step comes before a county burial.
6. 6If neither the VA nor the organisation can take it on, hold the county to the second half of the duty: it must ensure the decedent is properly interred and that burial is made in a veterans’ cemetery, or in a portion of a cemetery designated for the burial of veterans and spouses of veterans.
7. 7If you are holding cremated remains that were never claimed, there is a route out. After a year in your possession you may release verification information to the VA or a veterans’ service organisation to check whether the remains are those of a veteran or a veteran’s dependant eligible for a veterans’ cemetery.
8. 8On being told they are, you may transfer the remains to a veterans’ service organisation, which must then ensure interment in a veterans’ cemetery or transport them there for burial.

Form

None — the duty sits on the county, not on an applicant

File with

The county where the death occurred, through the medical examiner’s office

Documents you will need

dd214

No renewal

Once granted it does not need renewing.