The VA pays a burial allowance, and it is nothing like the whole bill. Most families find that out during the week they least want to be learning it. What the VA does cover completely is the cemetery: burial in a VA national cemetery is generally provided at no cost to an eligible veteran, and that one decision can take several thousand dollars off a funeral total.
This page does not print the allowance amounts, and that is deliberate. They are adjusted every year. A page that hardcodes a dollar figure is wrong within twelve months and looks authoritative the entire time it is wrong. So two fields below start at zero: you look up today's figures on VA.gov, type them in, and the tool does the arithmetic against the costs you actually expect to face.
What is left at the end is the funeral home's own bill: its basic services fee, the transfer, a casket or urn, the death certificates, the obituary. That is the number worth knowing before anyone signs anything, and it is the number a policy would actually be covering.
still to be covered = total you expect − cemetery costs provided at no cost − (burial allowance + plot allowance + transportation reimbursement + other money committed)
The cemetery line is the one that moves the total, which is why it is the first question. Choosing a VA national cemetery subtracts the entire cemetery portion of your estimate, because the grave, the opening and closing, the marker and the perpetual care are provided at no cost to an eligible veteran. Choosing a private cemetery subtracts nothing there and leaves you relying on the plot allowance instead, which is a much smaller number. Everything after that line is straight subtraction.
The allowance fields start at zero on purpose. VA burial allowance amounts are adjusted annually. A calculator that printed this year's figure would be quietly wrong for most of the time it was online, so this one asks you for the figure instead and shows the arithmetic. Get the current amounts from VA.gov, or from the National Cemetery Scheduling Office, and type them in.
| Item | Who normally pays |
|---|---|
| Grave in a VA national cemetery | Provided at no cost to an eligible veteran |
| Opening and closing that grave | Provided at no cost |
| Government headstone or marker | Furnished at no cost, including in a private cemetery |
| Setting that marker in a private cemetery | Normally the family |
| Burial flag and Presidential Memorial Certificate | Provided at no cost |
| Perpetual care of the grave | Provided at no cost in a national cemetery |
| Funeral home basic services fee | The family, offset by the burial allowance |
| Casket or urn, viewing, obituary, flowers | The family |
| Plot in a private cemetery | The family, offset by the plot allowance if eligible |
What this is and is not. This is arithmetic on figures you supply, not an eligibility decision and not a quote. Whether a particular veteran, spouse or dependent qualifies, which allowance applies, and how much it is this year are all questions for the VA, and the discharge paperwork usually decides them. Nothing here is legal advice about a claim. Confirm your own case with VA.gov before you rely on the number at the top.
For an eligible veteran, burial in a VA national cemetery generally includes the grave itself, opening and closing the grave, a government headstone or marker, a burial flag, and perpetual care of the site. A Presidential Memorial Certificate is available as well. The family is not charged for any of it.
A spouse and dependent children may also be eligible for interment in a national cemetery, frequently in the same gravesite, even without military service of their own. The eligibility rules are specific and worth confirming rather than assuming, and the VA or the National Cemetery Scheduling Office will confirm a particular case.
This is the largest single lever in the whole calculation. In a private cemetery, a plot, the opening and closing, a marker and the fee to set that marker routinely come to thousands of dollars, and our cemetery plot cost calculator prices that side out. A veteran choosing a national cemetery deletes almost all of it. That is not a discount, it is a whole section of the bill that never appears.
It does not touch the funeral home. The basic services fee, transfer of the body into their care, refrigeration, a casket or urn, a viewing or service, certified death certificates, flowers and the obituary are all still yours. The burial allowance is a contribution toward that side of the bill, not a settlement of it.
Two of those catch families out. Death certificates cost roughly ten to thirty dollars each depending on the state, and every bank and insurer usually wants its own original copy, so plan on several. And a newspaper obituary is charged by the line, which is why we built an obituary cost calculator for it. Our page on what a funeral costs covers the rest of the funeral home side in the same detail.
The VA pays a substantially larger allowance when the death was connected to military service than when it was not. It matters that you look up the right one of the two, which is what the second question in the tool is for. Both figures are on VA.gov, both are adjusted annually, and neither is something we will print here and let go stale.
Time limits apply to some claims, and they are not the same for the two categories. Funeral homes often help file the paperwork, but the responsibility sits with the family, so keep the itemized bill and proof of who paid it. If the veteran is already interred and the marker is the outstanding question, that is a separate application. The current forms and deadlines are on VA.gov, and it is worth reading them rather than relying on what a relative remembers from a previous funeral.
Here is the honest consequence, and it runs against what an insurance page normally says. A veteran who will be buried in a national cemetery has already removed most of the cemetery bill, so the gap a policy needs to fill is genuinely smaller. Beyond that, the entire federal contribution outside the VA is a one-time $255 Social Security lump-sum death payment to an eligible surviving spouse or dependent child, which is explained on our Social Security death benefit page and has not moved since 1954.
So work out the real gap before you decide on an amount. Our how much coverage do you need page walks through that, and veterans burial benefits explained covers the eligibility side in plain language. Buying more than the gap is not a scandal, but you should do it knowing that is what you are doing.
See if you qualify for affordable coverage — it takes less than 60 seconds.
Check If You QualifyIt depends on whether the death was service-connected, and both amounts are adjusted every year, which is why this page asks you to enter the figure instead of printing one. Get the current amounts from VA.gov or from the National Cemetery Scheduling Office. Treat any web page quoting a specific dollar amount, including a page like this one, as possibly out of date.
No. The cemetery side in a VA national cemetery is generally provided at no cost, which is a large benefit, but the funeral home's own charges are not covered. The burial allowance is a contribution toward those charges rather than payment in full, and families are routinely surprised by how much of the funeral home bill remains.
A spouse and dependent children may be eligible, often in the same gravesite as the veteran, and generally without military service of their own. The rules are specific and depend on the relationship and the circumstances, so confirm your situation with the VA rather than assuming. State and tribal veterans cemeteries set their own rules and some charge a fee for a spouse.
Often you need less of it, and sometimes you do not need it at all. Removing the plot, the grave opening, the marker and perpetual care takes a large piece out of the total, so the honest answer is to price the remaining funeral home bill first and insure that gap rather than a headline funeral figure. If savings already cover what is left, a policy may be duplicating money you have.
The claim is generally made by the person or the estate that paid the funeral costs, and time limits apply to some categories of claim. Funeral homes often assist with the paperwork but the responsibility is the family's, so keep the itemized bill and proof of payment. Check the current form, evidence and deadline on VA.gov, because these details change.