The Department of Veterans Affairs is expanding benefits to help pay for veterans’ end-of-life expenses, the department announced Friday.
The expanded benefits include reimbursements for transporting remains to state and tribal veterans cemeteries, in addition to previously eligible national cemeteries; allowances for VA plots or interments for tribal organizations; and higher payments for non-service-connected burial benefits, according to a news release Friday.
“Last fiscal year, VA delivered more than 84,000 burial benefits to families of veterans,” Joshua Jacobs, the VA’s under secretary for benefits, said in the news release. “Expanding burial benefits means we are able to ensure veterans are honored in their final resting place, and assist their family, caregivers, and survivors during the difficult time of their loved one’s passing.”
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The expanded benefits comes after the department earlier this year made a push to encourage more veterans to use the burial benefits.
Fewer than half of veterans who qualified for a burial allowance or headstone last year used the benefit, while just 20% of eligible veterans were buried in a cemetery managed or supported by the VA, a benefit that comes at no cost to the veteran’s family, department officials said in January.
The VA manages 155 cemeteries nationwide and funds an additional…