Social Security and Veteran Burials

[Snoggera]

The short tale of a personal friend.

She was married for more that 3 decades to him. He fought two tours in Vietnam. They had 5 children together. Still married, but separated for a few years.

He died. She paid for the funeral/burial.

Social Security refused to reimburse her their customary $250 they provide for burials ($250 to bury someone?). Of course, he was provided a plot to reside in since he had been a vet, but this seems such a trivial way to screw people.

The government can spend 200 billion dollars on a war killing mostly innocent people, but refuses to reimburse even $250 of expenses for a dead, decorated veteran of the Vietnam War.

It doesn't seem reasonable, but there you are. Another example of our fine government's dedication to veterans, their spouses and families.

Thanks for reading

[dissention]

1. That's awful

The same thing happened with my grandfather when he died in '01. SS refused to pay for any of the burial expenses, claiming that because he had thousands in the bank when he died, those funds could be used for all expenses. Makes you wonder why we pay taxes.

[LuLu550]

2. My dad died on Feb 28 (1988)

and my mom had to send back his social security check because he wasn't alive for the entire month...if he had live a few more hours until it became March 1, she would have been able to keep it. Ridiculous!

[newyawker99]

3. I think you can thank Ronnie Reagan for this.

The change was made during his administration.

[papau]

7. True - payment only to surviving live in spouse if they are alive one

payment date after the first death (about 4 weeks needed).

I bet it saves a lot of money!

:-)

[dissention]

4. Are you serious?

I knew the SS was sick, but not that sick. Sounds like they were just pouring salt on the fresh wounds. :(

[Snoggera]

5. The reagan years

were the beginning of the national nightmare. Who knew there would be no end to the slashing and burning of safety net programs in the interest of fighting a war? Or two or three wars?

[dissention]

6. It didn't help

that Reagan was only the smokescreen. He was already out of it by the middle of his first term and simply became a right-wing prop and arm candy for Nancy (when she wasn't filming episodes of Diff'rent Strokes, that is).