Families paying for a veteran’s funeral can claim a $1,032 burial allowance and a separate $1,032 plot allowance when the veteran died on or after October 1, 2026, the Department of Veterans Affairs says. That is up from $1,002 for each allowance for deaths on or after October 1, 2025. The money does not arrive on its own, and for most deaths the claim has to be filed within two years of the burial.
The two-year clock runs from the burial, and only some claims escape it
VA’s burial allowance page states the rule in one sentence: a claim must be filed within 2 years after the veteran’s burial. The clock starts on the burial date, not on the date of death and not on the day a funeral home sends its bill. A family that buried a veteran in November 2026 has until November 2028 to file.
VA lists exceptions. There is no time limit when the veteran’s death was service connected, meaning it was caused by military service. There is also none when the death was not service connected but the veteran died while getting VA care, either at a VA facility or at a facility VA contracts with.
Two narrower exceptions follow. When the death was not service connected, a claim for the plot or interment allowance, or for the transportation allowance, has no time limit, and neither does a state or tribal organization claiming the state plot or interment allowance. A family claiming the $1,032 burial allowance for a death that was neither service connected nor under VA care is working against the two-year date.
Claims can be filed online or on VA Form 21P-530EZ, the Application for Burial Benefits. Paper forms go to the Pension Intake Center, PO Box 5365, Janesville, WI 53547-5365. VA lists phone help Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Eastern, for questions about a claim already in progress.
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The date of death, not the date of filing, picks $1,032 or $1,002
The amount depends on when the veteran died. For deaths on or after October 1, 2026, VA says it will pay a $1,032 burial allowance and $1,032 for a plot. For deaths on or after October 1, 2025, the same page lists $1,002 for the burial allowance and $1,002 for the plot.
The raise is $30 on each allowance, so $60 when both are claimed, and the pair comes to $2,064 at the new rate. A veteran who died in September 2026 falls in the $1,002 tier, and filing late does not move that claim into the higher one. Filing early does not change the tier either.
VA’s table also lists higher maximums when the death was service connected, with up to $2,000 for a veteran who died on or after September 11, 2001. The $1,032 figures sit in the other group of claims, the ones tied to deaths that were not service connected. Families should find the correct row before assuming which amount applies.
Transportation is a separate reimbursement. VA says it pays back the cost of moving the veteran’s remains to the final resting place when the receipt is in the claimant’s name, and for a burial in a national cemetery it may pay some or all of that cost. It is a different payment from the two $1,032 allowances.
Who VA pays and what it wants with the claim
The money goes to whoever paid. VA says a claimant may be eligible if paying the burial and funeral costs without being reimbursed by another organization. Qualifying claimants include a surviving spouse, a surviving partner from a legal union, a child, a parent, an executor or administrator, another relative or friend, and a representative of a funeral home or cemetery.
The veteran must not have received a dishonorable discharge, and one of several circumstances must apply. VA names a service-connected death, a death while getting VA care, and a death while receiving a VA pension or compensation. When remains go unclaimed, VA says it pays the person or organization responsible for them.
Some deaths are excluded outright. VA does not pay burial allowances for deaths on active duty, while serving as a member of Congress, or while serving a federal prison sentence. Those three categories sit in the same eligibility section as the dishonorable-discharge bar.
The paperwork is short. VA asks for the veteran’s death certificate showing the cause of death, plus an itemized receipt for transportation costs if the claimant paid them. A copy of the DD214 or other separation papers is recommended, though VA lists it as advice rather than a requirement.
VA’s burial benefits hub covers more than the cash. Burial in a VA national cemetery, headstones, markers and medallions each have their own application, and the allowance is described there as help paying for funeral services, burial and transportation. Those requests run separately from the allowance claim.
That leaves one date for a family to find, the burial date. If the veteran died on or after October 1, 2026, the allowance is $1,032 each. If the burial was more than a year ago and the death was not service connected or under VA care, the two-year window is already running down.
Is a funeral bill still waiting on a VA claim?
A burial allowance claim runs on a two-year clock, and the household filing it is often the same one with a second VA question open: a surviving spouse with limited income may also be able to ask about VA survivors pension. Burial paperwork and pension paperwork both turn on dates that nobody sends a reminder about.
The Veterans Benefits Action Kit lays out the three VA pension levels including Aid & Attendance, how to file for free with VA Form 21P-527EZ, and a claim tracker. Part 8 adds worksheets, contacts and a deadline calendar, so a burial filing date and a pension filing date can sit on one page.
Put every VA filing date on one deadline calendar and claim tracker →
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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
