The Department of Veterans Affairs is now able to provide outer burial receptacles for graves with casketed burials in VA grant-funded cemeteries.
Typically placed in a gravesite before a casket is lowered, OBRs reduce maintenance costs at cemeteries by preventing the ground over and around the casket from sinking and by preventing grave headstones from sinking or tilting. OBRs also assure the continuation of regular surface contours in cemeteries, advancing both aesthetic and public safety purposes.
Beginning on Nov. 9, 2024, VA will accept applications for payment of a monetary allowance for privately purchased OBRs and for OBRs provided by a grant-funded cemetery, when the OBR is placed at the time of interment. The allowance may be paid for burials that occurred on or after the effective date of the new authority which is Jan. 5, 2023.
In the case of a privately purchased OBR, the monetary allowance is payable to the individual who purchased the OBR.
For OBRs provided by a grant-funded cemetery, the monetary allowance is payable to the state or tribal organization when the OBR was provided at no cost to the decedent’s family.
The allowance amount is updated annually based on the average cost of government-purchased OBRs for use at VA national cemeteries, for placement at the time of interment. For interments that occurred in calendar year 2023, VA will pay $400; for interments that occurred in calendar year 2024, VA will pay $411. The amount for calendar year 2025 will be posted in a notice in the Federal Register, once the amount is determined.
The expansion was made possible by the Johnny Isakson and David P. Roe, M.D. Veterans Health Care and Benefits Improvement Act of 2020.
VA was previously authorized to provide OBRs for casketed burials in VA national cemeteries, which meant veterans and their families did not have to pay for an OBR when their loved ones were interred there. However, veterans and their eligible family members who chose to be interred in a grant-funded eterans cemetery sometimes would have to pay the cost of an OBR, as determined by each state or tribal organization. In some instances, the state or tribal organization paid for the OBR out of its own funds, so the allowance is a new benefit for them as well as for families.
Individuals who would like more information on how to claim the monetary allowance for a privately purchased OBR should contact the grant-funded veterans' cemetery where the interment took place but may also contact NCA’s Finance Service at VANCAOBRallowance@va.gov.
