When a Veteran dies, families often find themselves trying to do two hard things at once: grieve and manage logistics. In the middle of calls, paperwork, and decisions that feel impossibly fast, someone usually asks the practical question that deserves a practical answer: what help does the VA actually provide, and how do we get it without making a mistake?
VA burial benefits can reduce out-of-pocket costs in some situations, and they can also provide meaningful honors like a burial flag and a government headstone or marker. But these benefits are also easy to misunderstand. They are not a blank check, they are often structured as reimbursements, and eligibility can depend on where the burial takes place and how the Veteran’s service and circumstances fit VA rules. The goal of this guide is to make the process steadier, so you can focus on honoring a life rather than chasing down missing forms.
If you want the VA’s official overview as you read, start with the VA burial benefits and memorial items hub and the VA’s page on Veterans burial allowance and transportation benefits. Those two pages capture the core categories of assistance and provide the most current eligibility and filing guidance.
What “VA Burial Benefits” Actually Mean
Most families are really talking about two separate systems when they say “Veterans funeral benefits.” One system is burial in a VA national cemetery, which can include substantial services provided at no cost to the family. The other system is cash assistance—often called a burial allowance, a plot or interment allowance, and transportation reimbursement—that may repay some of what you spent, depending on eligibility and circumstances. The VA explicitly lists these categories on its burial allowance page, including the burial allowance, plot or interment allowance, and transportation reimbursement. Veterans Affairs
Thinking of these as separate lanes helps. Families sometimes plan a private-cemetery burial and assume the VA will cover most of the funeral bill, only to learn the cash reimbursement is limited. Other families qualify for a national cemetery burial but don’t realize how many services are included, and they spend money on things they might not have needed. The best outcomes usually come from clarifying the burial plan first, and then matching benefits to that plan.
Start With The Burial Plan: Where The Veteran Will Be Laid To Rest
Your first major decision is not about forms. It is about the resting place. The VA’s eligibility rules cover Veterans, service members, and certain family members. The clearest starting point is the VA’s Eligibility for burial in a VA national cemetery page, which outlines who can qualify, including many spouses and dependents in addition to the Veteran. Once you know the path you are taking—VA national cemetery, state Veterans cemetery, private cemetery, cremation with later interment—the benefits become easier to map.
Burial In A VA National Cemetery
If the Veteran qualifies and there is available space, burial in a VA national cemetery can be one of the most comprehensive benefits available, because many core services are provided at no cost to the family. VA notes that burial in a VA national cemetery includes a gravesite, opening and closing of the grave, a government-provided burial liner, a government-provided headstone or marker, and perpetual care. Veterans Affairs
For families who are arranging services at the time of death, scheduling is typically done through the VA’s process for Schedule a burial for a Veteran or family member. That page explains what information you will be asked for, what documents help confirm eligibility (often the DD214), and how the National Cemetery Scheduling Office coordinates the details. It can be reassuring to know that you do not need to “pre-reserve” a gravesite to be eligible. Eligibility and scheduling are the key pieces.
Planning ahead can also be a kindness. The VA offers a pre-need determination so families can confirm eligibility before a death occurs. The VA explains the process on Pre-need eligibility for burial in a VA cemetery, which can reduce confusion and delays later.
State Or Private Cemeteries And Other Plans
Many Veterans are buried in a private cemetery, a church cemetery, or a state Veterans cemetery close to family. In those cases, national cemetery burial benefits may not apply, but memorial items may still be available—especially the burial flag, a government headstone or marker (or a medallion in some cases), and a Presidential Memorial Certificate. You can start with the VA’s memorial items page and then follow the specific item you need.
It also helps to remember that disposition choices have changed across the country. According to the National Funeral Directors Association, the U.S. cremation rate is projected to be 63.4% in 2025. And according to the Cremation Association of North America, the U.S. cremation rate was 61.8% in 2024. Those numbers matter here because many Veteran families are planning cremation with an urn placement in a cemetery columbarium, burial of the urn in a family plot, or a ceremony later when loved ones can travel.
If your family chooses cremation, you may find it comforting to treat the urn decision as part of the plan—not as a separate, pressured purchase. Funeral.com’s How to Choose a Cremation Urn guide walks through the practical questions that actually prevent mistakes, and it connects naturally to choosing from cremation urns for ashes that fit where the urn will ultimately rest.
Cash Benefits: Burial Allowance, Plot Or Interment Allowance, And Transportation Reimbursement
When families say VA burial reimbursement, they are usually referring to the VA’s burial allowance and related payments. The VA describes these as payments to help cover some burial and funeral costs (burial allowance), some plot or interment costs (plot or interment allowance), and reimbursement for transporting remains to the final resting place (transportation reimbursement). Veterans Affairs
The most important mindset shift is this: these are generally partial reimbursements, not full coverage, and the amount depends on eligibility and circumstances. In plain terms, you typically pay the funeral home and cemetery, then apply for reimbursement with supporting documentation.
For service-connected deaths, the VA’s benefits summary states that VA will pay up to $2,000 toward burial expenses for deaths on or after September 11, 2001 (and up to $1,500 for certain earlier deaths), with possible transportation reimbursement in some national cemetery cases. Veterans Affairs
For non-service-connected deaths, maximum amounts can change over time. The VA provides a current and historical table on its burial allowance page; for example, it lists $1,002 for a burial allowance and $1,002 for a plot for Veterans who died on or after October 1, 2025, and $978 amounts for deaths on or after October 1, 2024 (and before October 1, 2025). Veterans Affairs
Because these figures can be updated and because eligibility details matter, it is wise to treat any dollar amount you hear secondhand as a prompt to check the VA’s current table rather than as a guarantee. If the Veteran died recently, use the VA burial allowance page as your source of truth.
Memorial Items: Flags, Headstones, And Certificates
Financial help matters, but so do the visible honors. Many families find that memorial items bring a quiet sense of structure to a hard day—something tangible that says, “This service mattered.”
Burial Flag (VA Form 27-2008)
A burial flag is one of the most familiar honors, and it is often arranged through the funeral director. The VA explains that to get a burial flag, you fill out burial flag VA Form 27-2008 and bring it to a funeral director, a VA regional office, or a U.S. post office. Veterans Affairs
If you want the official form landing page, the VA maintains About VA Form 27-2008, which includes the downloadable PDF and the current revision information. This is useful when families worry they have an outdated version.
Government Headstone Or Marker (VA Form 40-1330)
For headstones, grave markers, and wall markers, the VA directs families to submit VA headstone marker VA Form 40-1330. Veterans Affairs The VA also maintains a form page—About VA Form 40-1330—that helps confirm you are using the correct application and routes you to the PDF.
Even if a private cemetery is involved, families may still qualify for a government marker or a related memorial item. The key is to treat the headstone or marker as its own request with its own eligibility rules, rather than assuming it is automatically included with any burial plan.
Presidential Memorial Certificate
A Presidential Memorial Certificate is another meaningful keepsake that families sometimes learn about late—after they wish they had ordered it. The VA offers step-by-step instructions on Presidential Memorial Certificates, including the form number (VA Form 40-0247), submission options, and what to do if you need a status update. If you are collecting paperwork anyway, it is often worth adding this request while documents are already on hand.
The Reimbursement Paperwork: What Families Usually Need
Most delays happen for the same reason: the family is exhausted, and the paperwork is unfamiliar. It helps to approach the application as a short file you build once, rather than as an ongoing scavenger hunt. The VA’s burial allowance page lists common documentation needs and explains filing time limits, including that some non-service-connected claims must be filed within two years, with certain exceptions. Veterans Affairs
For many families, the simplest path is applying for burial benefits using VA Form 21P-530EZ. The VA provides an online application path here: Apply for burial benefits (VA Form 21P-530EZ). If you prefer to read the form instructions directly, the VA also provides the PDF version. VA Form 21P-530EZ (PDF)
In practical terms, most families gather some version of the following:
- The Veteran’s discharge paperwork (often DD214) or other proof of service
- A death certificate (or other proof of death as required for the specific benefit)
- Itemized receipts showing what you paid and who paid it (especially important for VA transportation reimbursement)
- Cemetery documentation for plot or interment costs when requesting a plot interment allowance
- Contact information for the funeral home and cemetery, so details match across documents
If you are doing this while grieving, it is completely reasonable to ask the funeral director what they can provide and what they can submit on your behalf. Many funeral homes have handled these requests before, and a short conversation up front can prevent weeks of back-and-forth later.
A Practical Timeline That Keeps The Stress Low
In the first day or two, the goal is to stabilize the plan. That usually means confirming the burial location (and eligibility, if a VA national cemetery is involved), choosing a funeral home or cremation provider, and deciding what kind of service your family wants. If burial in a VA national cemetery is the plan, the VA’s Schedule a burial page lays out the information you will be asked for and what to expect.
After that, you can shift from “time-of-need” decisions to reimbursement steps. Many families find it helpful to set one folder—paper or digital—where every receipt and document lands immediately. The folder is not just administrative. It is a way of protecting your future self from having to reassemble the story later.
And if you are in the planning stage rather than the immediate-loss stage, pre-need eligibility can reduce pressure for everyone involved. The VA explains the pre-need process on Pre-need eligibility for burial in a VA cemetery, and it can be paired with broader funeral planning conversations in your family. If you want a compassionate, practical guide to planning conversations and cost expectations, Funeral.com’s How to Plan a Funeral article can help you organize decisions without turning the process into a cold checklist.
How Cremation Choices Fit With VA Benefits
Families sometimes worry that choosing cremation somehow “reduces” Veteran honors. In reality, the VA’s burial allowance framework explicitly recognizes multiple legal burial types, including cremation and burial at sea. Veterans Affairs What changes is not whether the Veteran can be honored, but how the memorial plan is carried out.
If your family is choosing cremation, you are usually making two decisions: the cremation itself, and what happens afterward. Some families keep ashes at home for a period of time because travel, weather, or family dynamics make an immediate ceremony feel impossible. If that is you, Funeral.com’s guide to keeping ashes at home can help you think through safety, respect, and the emotional experience of living with an urn in the house.
From there, the practical question becomes the urn. A full-size urn supports an interment plan or a permanent home memorial. A smaller urn supports sharing among relatives or creating multiple memorial locations. Funeral.com’s collections make those options easier to visualize: cremation urns and cremation urns for ashes, small cremation urns, and keepsake urns. If you want a decision framework first and shopping second, the Journal guide on how to choose a cremation urn is designed to prevent the common mistakes families regret.
Some Veterans specifically asked for a water ceremony, or the family finds that the ocean feels like the only place that makes sense. If you are planning water burial or burial at sea for cremated remains, Funeral.com’s guide to water burial and burial at sea explains what “three nautical miles” means in practice and points families to the U.S. EPA burial-at-sea guidance that governs ocean scattering and release rules in many situations.
And sometimes remembrance becomes wearable. For families who want a discreet, daily connection, cremation jewelry can be a gentle option—especially when multiple relatives want a personal keepsake. Funeral.com offers both the educational overview and the practical product pathways: cremation jewelry, cremation necklaces, and the Journal’s cremation jewelry 101 guide for materials, filling, and sealing considerations.
Finally, because cost decisions and benefit decisions often overlap, it helps to have a realistic baseline for pricing. If you are weighing direct cremation versus a service with viewing, or trying to budget for urn and memorial items, Funeral.com’s guide on how much does cremation cost walks through common fees and the add-ons families are surprised by most often.
One small note that comes up more often than people expect: grief does not arrive in neat categories. Some families are honoring a Veteran and, at the same time, grieving a companion pet who was part of that Veteran’s daily life. If that is part of your story, there is nothing “small” about it. Funeral.com’s pet urns and pet urns for ashes collections include options for permanent memorials, while pet cremation urns and pet figurine cremation urns can feel especially personal, and pet keepsake cremation urns support sharing among family members.
Common Missteps That Delay VA Reimbursement
Most reimbursement problems are not “denials.” They are slowdowns caused by missing or mismatched information. The fix is usually simple, but it takes time when you are already stretched thin.
- Receipts are not itemized. If a receipt is just a lump sum with no detail, ask the provider for an itemized statement that shows what the payment covered.
- The payer’s name is unclear. Transportation reimbursement, in particular, is tied to who paid and whether receipts are in that person’s name. The VA notes that transportation reimbursement is tied to costs you paid directly and can document. Veterans Affairs
- Families wait too long for non-service-connected claims. The VA explains that some non-service-connected claims must be filed within two years after burial, with stated exceptions. Veterans Affairs
- Benefits are assumed rather than confirmed. Eligibility for one item does not always mean eligibility for every item. Treat each request—burial allowance, flag, marker—as its own process.
If you are unsure whether the Veteran’s death is considered service connected for VA purposes, or which category applies, it can be worth checking the VA’s summary of burial benefits. Veterans Affairs Even when the answer is “non-service-connected,” families often feel relieved simply knowing which lane they are in.
A Gentle Closing Thought: Make The Benefits Serve The Family, Not The Other Way Around
It is easy to feel like you are “doing it wrong” if you do not immediately know which form to submit or which office to call. But the truth is that these systems were built to be used by people in crisis, and it is normal to need help navigating them. Start with the plan—where the Veteran will be honored and laid to rest—then match benefits to that plan: veterans burial allowance and VA burial reimbursement for eligible costs, a burial flag and memorial items for honors, and a clear record of receipts and documents to keep the process moving.
And if your family’s plan includes cremation, let the memorial choices support you rather than pressure you. Whether that means selecting a dignified urn from cremation urns for ashes, choosing small cremation urns or keepsake urns for sharing, or carrying a small portion in cremation jewelry, the right choice is the one that makes your family feel more grounded—not more rushed.
If you want to keep one official “bookmark” for the entire process, the VA’s burials and memorials hub is the most reliable starting point. From there, you can move to the specific benefit you need, confident that you are using current instructions and current amounts.
