FEMA Has Paid Out Over $1 Billion For Funerals Of Coronavirus Victims

[douglas9]

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has disbursed over $1 billion to fund funerals for people who died from coronavirus, a top FEMA official said Friday as the U.S. faces another wave of infections and hospitalizations.

FEMA Deputy Director of Individual Assistance Matthew Redding told reporters Friday that the agency had made payments to 150,000 applicants to the funeral assistance program since it began in April.

Under the program, applicants are eligible to receive $9,000 per deceased person who died of coronavirus, with a limit of $35,000 per applicant if they paid for funerals for more than one victim.

It’s the most expensive funeral assistance program in FEMA history, Redding said, adding that previous ones only paid out only $11 million combined over the past ten years.

Applicants have a median income of $40,000, FEMA said, below the national median of $68,703 the U.S. Census Bureau reported in 2019.

The reimbursement program covers services, cremation, internment, caskets and urns, burial plots and cremation niches, markers and headstones and other funeral costs for most documented U.S. residents whose cause of death is listed as coronavirus on a death certificate.


https://www.forbes.com/sites/carlieporterfield/2021/08/13/fema-has-paid-out-over-1-billion-for-funerals-of-coronavirus-victims/?sh=fae0d262a0ca

[smirkymonkey]

1. This should not be allowed for the willfully unvaccinated.

Enough with this. No more "socialism" for people who don't believe in it.

They can pay for their own goddamned funerals and services. That money needs to be reserved for the upcoming natural disasters that are sure to befall us due to global warming.

We aren't even near the peak of hurricane season yet, and already we have had record heat waves, flooding, fires, etc. We can't afford to give out freebies to anti-vaxxers for the deaths of their family members that could have easily been prevented.

[littlemissmartypants]

2. Or those with forged death certificates who are looking for a free funeral...

[Ziggysmom]

3. You don't need 9 grand for simple cremation or burial. If a poor person

dies of non-Covid causes, the state will cover $3500 in Wisconsin for cremation expenses.
When I was a kid, I remember extended family discussing their cemetery plots, life insurance and funeral plans. It seems many people today don't preplan so much. I don't want to leave my loved ones with those headaches. Preplanning for your death is the kind thing to do.

[North Shore Chicago]

4. We all hate lawyers....

until we need one.

A lot of these people probably hate big gummit, 'til they have their hand out, for gummit assistance.