Allegheny County Burial Allowance, Headstone Base and Burial Plots

Allegheny County is the only Pennsylvania county of the second class, so its burial benefits come from sections 2108 to 2123 of the Second Class County Code rather than Title 16. The State entry on county burial and grave benefits compares the two. The burial allowance. Section 2109 directs the county to pay $75 and lets it add $25 toward the funeral of each deceased service person who lived in the county; Allegheny pays the full $100. Section 2110 does the same for the surviving spouse of a service person, provided the spouse had not remarried; the section speaks of widows, Act 173 of 1978 repealed it insofar as it is inconsistent with equal rights based on sex, and the county pays a widow or widower. The county page says the veteran must have been an honorably discharged wartime veteran and a legal resident of Allegheny County at death, and the spouse an Allegheny County resident. The deadline the page leaves out. Both sections require the application within one year of the death. Only a service person who died in service may apply at any time. Allegheny's County Benefits page does not mention the year, so a family that waits loses the allowance. Who applies. The personal representative, or failing one any next of kin, person or veterans' organization that pays for the burial, on Form 11 (veteran) or Form 10 (spouse), with a certified death certificate and the funeral director's certificate. The county pays the applicant if the bill is paid, otherwise the funeral director. Headstone base. Section 2113 has the county set the concrete base for a free federal headstone or add lettering, up to $100. Allegheny pays up to $100 for the foundation and installation of the federal headstone or marker, for wartime veterans only and not for commercially bought materials; any difference is the family's. Apply on Form 12. Burial plots. Section 2114 lets the county buy plots for service persons, and Allegheny keeps free plots at Restland Memorial Park, 990 Patton Street, Monroeville (412-823-4888), for indigent veterans of wartime service. There are no cemetery costs, the funeral director must certify that the money to bury the veteran is not there, and the permit comes from Veterans Services. Plots are not available for spouses; the National Cemetery of the Alleghenies takes veterans, spouses and some dependent children. Flags and markers. The county provides flags and emblem markers for Memorial Day decoration of veterans' graves, as section 2122 requires, and a family member may keep the grave's flag after the first working day after Veterans Day. On the wartime test. The Code's definition of a deceased service person reaches anyone whose separation from service was honorable, but section 2116 asks for "an honorable discharge or other official record showing service during any war", which counties read as a wartime requirement. Allegheny links VA's list of war periods.