Luzerne County pays $100 toward the burial of a wartime veteran with an honorable discharge, and of a veteran's widow, and helps families order free government headstones. The county page adds a 90-day active duty requirement, and the widow's form caps the funeral at $1,000; the statute has neither test. Apply within one year of the death.
The duties are the State's, under 16 Pa.C.S. Chapter 155; see the Pennsylvania entry on county burial and grave benefits. Luzerne County Veteran Affairs (570-706-3976) takes the applications, and funeral directors find the forms on the county site.
What the county pays. $100 toward the burial of a wartime veteran with an honorable discharge, on a copy of the DD-214, the death certificate and proof of residence, and $100 toward the burial of the widow of a wartime veteran, with the marriage licence. The statutory minimum is $75 each. The 2026 budget carries $53,000 for burial benefits and $105,000 for cemetery markers.
Where the county's terms go beyond the statute, which governs.
Ninety days. The county page requires 90 days of active duty other than for training, one of them in a period of war. 16 Pa.C.S. 15508 sets no length of service: it covers anyone whose separation was honorable, and counties read the proof rule in section 15516 as asking for wartime service. A veteran with less than 90 days, one of them in wartime, should apply.
A cost ceiling for widows. The widow's form has the county certify that "the expenses of burial did not exceed $1,000.00". Section 15510 has no cost ceiling; a widow's funeral that cost more still earns the allowance.
Widows only. The forms speak of a widow; section 15510 covers the spouse of either sex who had not remarried after the veteran's death.
Out-of-date citations. Both forms cite sections 421 and 424 of the General County Code of 1929. Act 14 of 2024 replaced the County Code with 16 Pa.C.S.; the provisions are now sections 15508 to 15516.
The deadline. Neither the page nor the forms say it: apply within one year of the death (sections 15509 and 15510), except for a death in service.
Headstones. The office helps the next of kin order a free government headstone, or a medallion for a private headstone, and arranges for the headstone to be prepared for installation and delivered to the cemetery; it warns that the cemetery may charge for placement. Section 15513 makes the county provide a concrete or granite base for a federal headstone at actual cost, approved before the work starts; ask the office about it before paying a cemetery's setting fee.
Thresholds
Thresholds for Luzerne County Burial Allowance and Headstones
Gate
Rule
A wartime veteran with an honorable discharge, or a surviving spouse, living in the county
The statute covers a veteran with an honorable separation and a spouse who had not remarried, with no length of service or cost ceiling. Apply within one year of the death. No rating is needed.
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Disclaimer
VetTOC is not affiliated with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs or the Department of Defense. Information is for reference only and is not an eligibility determination. Verify with VA, the relevant state or territory, or an accredited VSO.