Veteran's Benefits

Please contact our office for a free Veterans Pre-planning Guide (910-893-3232).

How do I request veterans' funeral benefits through O'Quinn-Peebles-Phillips Funeral Home?

O'Quinn-Peebles-Phillips Funeral Home will work with you to make sure your loved one receives the burial benefits they earned through serving our country. To request funeral benefits, you will need to provide our funeral director with a copy of your loved one's military discharge papers, or DD 214/Separation Documents. This document is necessary to establish proof of eligibility for burial benefits. If you do not already have a copy of the discharge papers, you may go online and request them at http://www.archives.gov/veterans/military-service-records/

Eligibility Requirements

In order to be eligible to receive funeral benefits or compensation for expenses associated with final arrangements, you must be a veteran discharged or separated from active duty under conditions other than dishonorable, and have completed the required period of service. U.S. Armed Forces members who die on active duty are also eligible, as are spouses and dependent children of eligible living and deceased veterans, and of current and deceased armed forces members. For detailed information on determining veteran status as it pertains to funeral benefits, visit

http://www.cem.va.gov/cem/burial_benefits/eligible.asp

or contact the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs at (800) 827-1000.

What types of funeral benefits are available to veterans?

Depending on the chosen final arrangements, specific funeral benefits are administered by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), or by the state in which the burial or inurnment takes place.

If the veteran's death is service connected, VA will pay a burial allowance up to $2,000. VA will also pay the cost of transporting the remains of a service-disabled veteran to the national cemetery that has available grave sites nearest the home of a deceased veteran. The person who bore the veteran's burial expenses in such cases may claim reimbursement from VA.

For veterans who, at time of death, were entitled to receive pension or compensation, or would have been entitled to compensation but for receipt of military retirement pay, VA will pay a $300 burial and funeral expense allowance. When death occurs in a VA facility or a nursing home with which VA contracted, eligibility is also established. Additional costs of transportation of the remains may be reimbursed.

When filing reimbursement claims of service-connected deaths, there is no time limit. In any other deaths, claims must be filed within two years after permanent burial or cremation. The VA $300 plot allowance is not payable solely on wartime service. VA will pay the allowance when the veteran is not buried in a cemetery that is under U.S. Government jurisdiction if the veteran is discharged from active duty because of disability incurred or aggravated in line of duty, if the veteran was in receipt of compensation or pension or would have been in receipt of compensation but for receipt of military retired pay, or if the veteran died while hospitalized by VA.

The $300 plot allowance may be paid to the state if the veteran is buried without charge for the cost of a plot or interment in a state-owned cemetery reserved solely for veteran burials. Burial expenses paid by the deceased's employer or a state agency will not be reimbursed.

You can apply by filling out VA Form 21-530, Application for Burial Benefits. VA Regional offices and many funeral providers will assist you in completing and filing this form. You can find the form online at

http://www.va.gov/vaforms/

To ensure prompt handling of your claim, have the following information ready: 

• Social Security number for yourself and your dependent children
  
• Certified copy of original DD Form 214 (Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty)
  
• Certified copy of Death Certificate
  
• Verification of the life insurance amount you will receive as a result of the veteran's death
  
• Paid receipts for hospital and doctor bills incurred by last illness, if applicable
  
• Paid receipts for funeral and cemetery expenses
  
• If either yourself or the veteran was previously married, provide a certified copy of the original divorce decree or death certificate proving the previous marriage was dissolved by divorce or death
  
• If there are dependent children, you will need an original birth certificate for each child under 18, or over 18 if full-time student
  
• If over 18 and still in school, you will need to fill out VA Form 21-674
  
• If you or the veteran receive Social Security Benefits, the exact amount must be reported
  
• If you already have a VA claim number, you must furnish the claim number you have been assigned
  
• If you or the veteran receive additional income, the source and exact amount must be reported