Q: It has been advertised on TV by some insurance companies that Social Security will pay a portion of funeral expenses under certain circumstances. What criteria must be met and what is the amount of funeral allowance?
A: The benefit you are referring to is the $255 one-time Social Security death benefit, which hardly covers the cost of a few flowers, let alone a funeral. A surviving spouse can claim the benefit if the couple was not divorced or legally separated at the time of death, and if the person who is deceased had enough work credits to be entitled to a benefit on their own account.
If there’s no surviving spouse who was living with the deceased at the time of death, a divorced spouse can collect the $255 as long as he or she is entitled to regular survivors benefits based on the deceased’s account. In the absence of a “qualified spouse,” the death benefit may be paid in equal shares to each surviving (minor or disabled) child who was eligible for child’s benefits for the month in which the worker died.
An application for the death benefit must be filed within two years of the beneficiary’s death. For more information, call Social Security at 1-800-772-1213.
November 2002
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