WASHINGTON -- Under a new law, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will increase reimbursement for funeral expenses and cemetery plots for service-disabled veterans and provide government markers for veterans' graves even if families already have installed private markers.
"The modest increases in payments to veterans' families, and the additional monuments to our heroes' service, are steps toward better acknowledging this nation's appreciation of its veterans," said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony J. Principi.
The Veterans Education and Benefits Expansion Act of 2001 increases the burial and funeral expense allowance for veterans who die as a result of a service-connected disability from $1,500 to $2,000 and the cemetery plot allowance, for certain other disabled veterans, from $150 to $300.
The law also directs VA to honor requests for government markers for veterans buried in private cemeteries even if their graves have headstones or markers furnished at private expense. Previous law prevented VA from providing markers in that situation. These increases are among many provisions of Public Law 107-103 that expand other veterans' benefits.
About 9,800 families receive funeral expense reimbursement for service-connected deaths each year. The $500 increase in the funeral reimbursement, the first since 1988, is expected to increase the government's cost by about $5 million a year. This change applies to deaths on or after Dec. 1, 2001.
About 90,000 families become eligible for the plot allowance annually. The cost of increasing the amount, which had been $150 since 1973, will be about $13 million a year. The higher allowance will be paid for deaths on or after Dec. 1, 2001.
The plot allowance is paid when a veteran is buried in a non-government cemetery. Also, the veteran must meet one of the following three criteria: The veteran was eligible to receive VA disability compensation or a VA pension, was discharged from military service due to disability or died in a VA hospital.
In the past, people who submitted VA applications to receive a government marker had to certify that the veteran's grave was unmarked. Some families complained of unfairness because they could not obtain the government's free marker to commemorate the veteran's service if they had purchased a marker.
Under the new law, the applicant must certify that the marker will be placed only in a cemetery. VA will send the marker only to a designated cemetery.
The new provision for markers applies to veterans' deaths on or after Dec. 27, 2001. By Feb. 1, 2006, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs will report to Congress on how much this benefit is being used and recommend whether or not to continue it.
