VA Burial Allowance Calculator: What VA Pays by Date of Death

Updated September 3, 2026. Quick answer: what VA pays toward a veteran’s funeral is set by the date of death, not by today’s rate. For a death on or after 1 October 2025 that was not service-connected, VA pays a $1,002 burial allowance and, for a private-cemetery burial, $1,002 more as a plot allowance. Where the death was service-connected the maximum is $2,000. But for a death before 5 January 2023 the ordinary burial allowance was $300, not the full amount, unless the veteran died in VA care. Families settling an older death are the ones most often told the wrong number.

Why the date of death decides the amount

Two things move the figure, and both are dates rather than choices.

The first is annual indexing. Under 38 U.S.C. 2303(c) the Secretary raises the burial and plot allowances each fiscal year by the increase in the Consumer Price Index for the 12-month period ending on the June 30 before that fiscal year, rounded to the nearest dollar. That is why the amounts run $734, $745, $747, $749, $762, $780, $796, $807, $828, $893, $948, $978, $1,002 rather than in round steps. The rate that applies is the one in force on the date of death.

The second is a statutory change most coverage still misses. Until 2023 there were two different non-service-connected allowances: a small one under 38 U.S.C. 2302 for an ordinary death, and the full allowance under 38 U.S.C. 2303 where the veteran died in VA care. Section 2302 was repealed by Public Law 116-315, section 2202(a)(2), and the repeal applies to deaths occurring on or after the date two years after 5 January 2021, which is 5 January 2023. From that date the two paths merged and every eligible non-service-connected death draws the full allowance.

So for a death on 1 March 2022 the ordinary burial allowance was $300, while a veteran who died in a VA facility that same day drew $828. For a death on 1 March 2023 both draw $893. Publishing only the current rate, as most pages do, overstates the older figure by more than three times.

The rates VA publishes, by date of death

These are the tables the calculator reads, transcribed from VA’s own rate page. Each is identified below by the title VA gives it, because the difference between the second and the third is the single thing most easily got wrong.

Service-connected death

Under 38 U.S.C. 2307 this payment is made in lieu of the benefits authorised by subsections (a)(1) and (b)(2) of section 2303. That is why the calculator adds no separate plot allowance to a service-connected death: the statute substitutes one for the other rather than stacking them.

Non-service-connected death

Non-service-connected death where the veteran was in VA care

This table applies where the veteran was properly admitted to a VA or VA-contracted facility, was in a nursing home at VA expense, or died travelling under authorisation to VA care. Before 5 January 2023 it is materially more generous than the table above; from that date the two are identical.

The plot allowance follows the cemetery, not the family

The plot or interment allowance exists for a veteran who is eligible for burial in a national cemetery but is not buried in one. Where the burial is in a state or tribal veterans cemetery, 38 U.S.C. 2303(b)(1) directs the payment to that cemetery rather than to you. Where it is in a private cemetery, 2303(b)(2) pays the allowance to the person who bore the cost, and reduces it by anything a state, a political subdivision, a tribal organisation or a former employer already paid toward the plot. Where the burial is in a VA national cemetery there is no plot allowance at all, because there is no plot to buy.

What VA provides at no cost, which no allowance covers

These are furnished rather than reimbursed, so they never appear as a dollar figure in a claim, and they are usually worth more than the allowance itself:

• Burial in a VA national cemetery for an eligible veteran, including the grave, its opening and closing, and perpetual care.
• A government headstone or marker. VA furnishes one at its own expense, and for a death on or after 1 November 1990 it will do so even where the grave already carries a privately purchased headstone.
• A burial flag, and a Presidential Memorial Certificate.

VA also publishes a separate headstone or marker allowance table. This page does not compute it: we could not establish from a primary source, this session, the circumstances in which that allowance is payable to a family today rather than VA simply furnishing the marker. Rather than guess at a number that would sit next to verified ones, we have left it out and said so.

Transportation, which is real money and is not a fixed sum

38 U.S.C. 2308 lets VA pay the cost of transporting the remains for burial in a national cemetery or a covered veterans’ cemetery, in addition to the allowances above, for a veteran who died of a service-connected disability, who was receiving compensation or pension, or who died in VA care. The payment is capped at the cost of transport to the national cemetery nearest the veteran’s last residence with space available. Because it depends on an itemised receipt in your own name, no honest calculator can put a figure on it in advance, and this one does not try.

The Social Security $255, and what it is not

Social Security pays a one-time lump-sum death payment of $255.00. It is a separate programme from anything above and it is widely misunderstood. It is not a funeral reimbursement and it does not go to whoever paid the bill. Under SSA’s own manual it goes to a surviving spouse who was living in the same household at the time of death, or failing that to children entitled on the record, the deceased must have been fully or currently insured, and the claim must ordinarily be filed within two years of the death.

What this tool does not do

• It does not decide eligibility. VA does. Discharge characterisation, the relationship of the claimant, and whether another organisation is reimbursing the cost all bear on a claim and none of them is a rate-table question.
• It does not compute transportation or the headstone allowance, for the reasons given above.
• It shows maximums. VA pays the lesser of the allowance and the cost actually incurred, so a direct cremation costing less than the allowance is reimbursed at cost.
• It covers deaths from 1 October 2013 onward, the earliest date VA publishes on the rate page read for this build.

The claim itself is VA Form 21P-530EZ. A surviving spouse recorded on the veteran’s profile generally does not have to file at all: VA pays automatically on notice of death. Where the death was not service-connected the deadline is ordinarily two years after burial, with exceptions that remove the limit entirely.

Related

The full guide to VA burial benefits · what a funeral actually costs · who pays for a funeral · paying without life insurance.

Scope, method and sources

Every amount on this page was read on September 3, 2026 from the source named beside it. The three rate tables are transcribed from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs page Veterans burial allowance and transportation benefits (va.gov/burials-memorials/veterans-burial-allowance/, VA’s own “last updated” date: 15 December 2025), and each is identified by the title VA gives that table rather than by its position on the page. The statutory rules are read from the United States Code at uscode.house.gov: 38 U.S.C. 2303 for the non-service-connected allowance, the plot allowance and the indexing formula; 38 U.S.C. 2307 for service-connected death and its “in lieu of” clause; 38 U.S.C. 2308 for transportation; and 38 U.S.C. 2302, whose repeal note supplies the 5 January 2023 boundary. The framework sections 38 CFR 3.1700 to 3.1713 were read from the official eCFR and state no dollar amounts, which is why the figures come from VA rather than from the regulation. The $255 figure and the rules around it are from SSA POMS RS 00210.001. General information, not legal advice and not a determination of any claim.