Families and loved ones who have covered coronavirus-related funeral expenses can seek reimbursement through FEMA’s COVID-19 Funeral Assistance Program. Expenses can include caskets, urns, embalmments and cremation. But Malary White with the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency says only around 7,000 applications have been filed in the state for the federal assistance.
“Of those registrations, there have been 4,645 that have been eligible for this. And there are various reasons as to why someone would be ineligible. It could be a duplication of benefits, which is something FEMA can not do. If you have insurance, you have to use your insurance first before FEMA will look at reimbursing you.”
Some families in Mississippi have lost multiple relatives throughout the pandemic. Bruce Lynd, President of the Mississippi Funeral Directors Association, says funerals can be very costly when paid for back to back. He says this federal assistance can allow families to work through their grief without that additional financial burden.
“It means that they get to have a service for their loved ones that’s actually meaningful, they’re not having to cut corners and just do something that’s as cheap as possible just because that’s all they can afford,” says Lynd. “So this allows them the opportunity to pay tribute to their loved one in the way that they want to and doesn’t put their family in a financial hardship.”
If multiple people within a family helped to pay for funeral expenses, only one application needs to be filed for the federal assistance through FEMA.
