Lehigh County Burial Allowances and Headstone Allowance

The duties are the State's, under 16 Pa.C.S. Chapter 155; see the Pennsylvania entry on county burial and grave benefits. The Office of Veterans Affairs takes the applications on its forms (Form LCVA, May 2022). What the county pays. $100 toward the burial of a deceased service person, defined on the form as anyone who served at any time and whose separation was honorable, with wartime service, who lived in Lehigh County at death; the personal representative, next of kin, another person or a veterans' organization that takes responsibility for the burial applies within one year, with proof of wartime service, a certified death record and the original invoice. $100 toward the burial of the veteran's unremarried spouse, on the same terms. The statutory minimum is $75 each. Headstones. An allowance "not to exceed $100" toward a family memorial, lettering on an existing memorial or a concrete base for a government headstone, paid on the contractor's affidavit that the work is done. Section 15513 makes the base or lettering an actual-cost duty, approved before the work starts; there is no $100 ceiling in the statute, so a family facing a larger bill should ask the office first. Out-of-date citations. All three forms cite "the County Code of 1955, as amended; Article XIX-A(b)" and Article XIX. Act 14 of 2024 replaced the County Code with 16 Pa.C.S.; the provisions are now sections 15508 to 15516.