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Burial Money: $100 Means-Tested, $200 Not — and Both Run on a One-Year Clock

Two separate payments that families routinely confuse. The burial allowance is up to $100 and only where the estate and immediate family lack the funds. The headstone SETTING reimbursement is $200, with $100 more for etching service details on a privately bought stone — and it carries no means test at all.

Verified August 22, 2026

What this benefit is

Two separate payments that families routinely confuse. The burial allowance is up to $100 and only where the estate and immediate family lack the funds. The headstone SETTING reimbursement is $200, with $100 more for etching service details on a privately bought stone — and it carries no means test at all.

What it's worth: Up to $100 burial allowance where the family lacks funds; $200 towards setting a government headstone or marker, plus $100 for etching service details on a privately purchased stone

  • The burial allowance reaches an honorably discharged veteran or their spouse, widow or widower.
  • Residency is met by one year in this state immediately before entering military service, or one year immediately before death — either one.
  • The burial allowance cannot be paid to another unit of government.

Who is entitled to it

  • Your discharge characterisation is within the range these programmes run on.
  • You are in this state.

Not sure whether that describes you?

Answer a few questions about this benefit specifically — we only ask what this one actually depends on, and we stop as soon as we know.

How to claim it

Deadline: Burial allowance: within one year of the burial. Headstone setting: within one year of the setting.
  1. 1Treat these as two claims, not one. The setting reimbursement is larger than the burial allowance and is not means-tested, so a family with means should still claim it.
  2. 2Diary both one-year clocks the week of the funeral. The burial allowance runs one year from the burial; the setting reimbursement runs one year from the date the stone was set, which can be months later.
  3. 3For the burial allowance, the survivors or relatives must give the county or tribal service officer an affidavit that the estate and immediate family lack sufficient funds. That affidavit is the claim — without it the allowance does not open.
  4. 4Keep the monument company's invoice showing the setting charge separately from the stone itself. It is the setting that is reimbursed.
  5. 5If you bought a private headstone rather than taking the government marker, ask about the additional $100 for etching the military information on the back — it is a separate line, not part of the $200.
  6. 6File through the county or tribal veterans service officer. The department takes these from the service officer, not from families directly.
Form
Burial allowance application and headstone setting reimbursement application
File with
Your county or tribal veterans service officer, who forwards it to the department
Documents you will need
dd214
No renewal
Once granted it does not need renewing.
CorrectionThe headline figures invert the intuition. A family told "the state pays $100 towards burial" often stops there. The setting reimbursement is $200, has no means test, and a family that never applies for the burial allowance can still claim it.
Worth knowingThe residency test is generous because it is disjunctive: one year here before entering service OR one year here before death. A veteran who left decades ago and came home late in life still meets it, and so does one who left from here and died elsewhere.
Worth knowingThe bar on paying another unit of government matters where a county or a facility has already covered the funeral. The allowance is designed to reimburse a family, not to move money between public bodies.
Known gapThe department also reimburses congressionally chartered veterans organisations quarterly for performing military funeral honours. That is a payment to the organisation, not to the family, and the rate is not published — ask the honour-guard unit rather than budgeting for it.

Sources

This finder provides an informational match, not a government eligibility determination. The responsible agency decides your application.