Westmoreland County Burial Allowance and Headstone Applications

The duties are the State's, under 16 Pa.C.S. Chapter 155; see the Pennsylvania entry on county burial and grave benefits, which sets the floor at $75 toward the funeral of a veteran and of a surviving spouse who had not remarried. Westmoreland County posts three applications, for a deceased service person, for a widow and for a burial at sea, and a headstone application; Veterans Affairs & Services (724-830-3530) completes the county's certification on each. What the forms ask. The burial application, headed "Act 154 of 2018", is an affidavit by the personal representative, next of kin or a veterans' organization, with the funeral director's affidavit, giving the service, discharge, death and grave location, whether the bill is paid, and whom to pay. It leaves the amount blank; ask the office what the county pays this year. The headstone application asks the commissioners to authorise a headstone, the lettering on an existing headstone or a base for a government headstone before the contractor does the work, which section 15513 requires, and pays the contractor on a certificate of completion. What the forms have out of date. The burial form cites "The County Code of 1955 as Amended; Article XIX-A(b)" and the headstone form "Subdivision (b) Article 5 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. What the forms ask that the statute does not. Both ask for the state of legal residence when the veteran enlisted, and the headstone form asks how long the veteran lived in the county and for a certificate that the grave never had a memorial. The statute turns on legal residence in the county at death (sections 15509 and 15513), and the base or lettering is owed at actual cost. Answer the questions, but a veteran who enlisted from another state or moved to the county late in life still qualifies. The deadline. Apply within one year of the death (sections 15509 and 15510), except for a death in service; the forms do not say so.