When a serviceman has perished during service or in connection with it, the state provides for special support for the family — this is assistance for burial, which helps to cover the expenses for funeral services and burial.
BlueBird Tech, a company that works on the creation of equipment for the protection of the lives of the military, prepared this article in order to support families and loved ones and help them understand how to process assistance for burial and which documents are needed.
What Assistance for Burial Is?
Assistance for the burial of a serviceman is a material payment or compensation of expenses assigned to the family or the person who buried a serviceman who perished or died in connection with service.
In accordance with the current legislation, persons with special merits before the Homeland, participants in combat operations, and fallen military have the right to free burial at the expense of the state or the receipt of compensation
The Components of Assistance for the Burial of a Serviceman
Assistance can be provided in two formats: free burial or cash compensation.
1. Free burial
The state can cover the basic list of funeral services, in particular:
- the coffin;
- the transportation of the body;
- the digging and arrangement of the grave;
- funeral services;
- organizational expenses.
This concerns servicemen who perished during service, veterans of the ATO/JFO/AFU, and persons with the status of special merits.
2. Cash compensation of expenses
If the family independently organized the burial, the state can compensate the expenses confirmed by documents.
The compensation usually includes:
- funeral services;
- transportation;
- the processing of documents;
- the installation of a gravestone (in some cases — partially);
- organizational expenses.
Who Can Receive Assistance for Burial?
The right to assistance for the burial of a fallen serviceman is held by:
- members of the serviceman’s family (wife or husband; children under 18; children older than 18 if they are either persons with a disability since childhood or acquired a disability before reaching 18 years of age; dependents; students who are not older than 23 years and study in the full-time form of education);
- the authorized representative indicated in the will of the deceased;
- in a judicial order — social services (if there are no relatives).
The main criterion is that it is precisely this person who organized the burial or paid for it. In addition, the state provides for a certain list of benefits for the wife of a participant in combat operations.
Documents for Receiving Assistance for Burial
In order to receive assistance for the burial of a serviceman, it is necessary to prepare:
- An application for receiving assistance (form of the established sample).
- The death certificate of the serviceman.
- A document that confirms family relations (if needed): marriage certificate, birth certificate, court decision.
- A certificate of the place of residence of the deceased.
- Documents about the expenses for burial (receipts, contracts, acts of completed works).
- The serviceman’s ID or a certificate from the military unit about the circumstances of the death.
In some cases, the bodies of social protection can ask for additional documents — everything depends on the concrete situation.
Documents for receiving assistance for the burial of a serviceman can be submitted to the body of social protection (at the place of registration of the deceased or the residence of the applicant), through the Diia portal (online submission and tracking of the status), or through the military unit, which processes the primary documents in the case of death in the zone of combat operations.
What Can the Cash Assistance Be Spent On?
The received funds can be directed to any expenses connected with burial, in particular:
- funeral services;
- the transportation of the body;
- the manufacture of a grave marker;
- the rental of a farewell hall;
- cremation (at the wish of the family);
- additional organizational expenses.
The state does not limit the use of the funds to a strictly defined list — the main thing is that the purpose of the expenses corresponds to the procedure of burial.