Lancaster County Burial and Headstone Allowance, Grave Flags and Grave Care

The duties are the State's, under 16 Pa.C.S. Chapter 155; see the Pennsylvania entry on county burial and grave benefits. Lancaster County Veterans Affairs (717-299-7920) takes the applications. What the county says. Its Veterans Affairs page lists a "$100 burial and headstone allowance" and "grave markers and grave flags", and nothing more. What the statute adds. The deadline. Apply within one year of the death (sections 15509 and 15510), except for a death in service. Who qualifies. At least $75 is owed toward the funeral of every veteran who lived in the county and whose separation was honorable, wherever the death or burial, and toward the funeral of a surviving spouse who had not remarried. Counties read the proof rule (section 15516) as asking for wartime service. The headstone base is separate. Section 15513 makes the county provide a concrete or granite base for a free federal headstone, or the lettering on an existing family memorial, at actual cost, approved before the work starts. The page's single "$100 burial and headstone allowance" does not cap that duty. Payment. The county pays the applicant if the bill is paid, otherwise the funeral director (section 15511). Grave care. Section 15515 lets a county pay for the care of veterans' graves, and Lancaster does: its 2026 budget carries $10,000 for it, beside $43,423 for burials, $8,400 for headstones and $64,000 for flags and markers. Records. The County Archives keeps a Veteran Burial Card Index (1777 to 1989), a Veteran Burial Expense Index (1968 to 1988), veteran death reports (1954 to 1966) and the grave marker requests made to the commissioners, which help a family or a researcher find where a veteran is buried.