FEMA has announced a new plan to reimburse people for funeral expenses related to COVID-19 deaths.
The government will provide up to $7,000 to those who qualify as part of the new America Rescue Plan.
The money is a huge relief to many faced with enormous funeral expenses they could have never predicted or prepared for so suddenly.
Early last month, Erika Martinez lost her father and brother to COVID-19 within 24 hours of each other.
Around Thanksgiving, with so many dying from COVID, her dad had started talking about wills and saving for a funeral just in case.
“It was a five-year plan,” said Martinez. “And three months later he’s gone. And it hurts.”
Her father was just 57. Her brother 33.
Martinez should’ve been focused on grieving, but the family, she said, was overwhelmed by $10,000 in funeral expenses.
Local funeral home workers like La Cheryl Aikens say sadly the Martinez family is far from alone.
“We, as a funeral home,” said Aikens, “Have been inundated with so many deaths. Repeated families, untimely deaths.”
To ease that emotional and financial burden, in April FEMA will begin reimbursing up to $7,000 in documented funeral expense to those who’ve lost loved ones to Covid 19.
“While we’ve done funeral assistance at disasters, we’ve never done anything at this scale or scope,” said FEMA Acting Director Bob Fenton.
FEMA says to be eligible a death must have occurred in the U.S or its territories and the death certificate must indicate COVID as a related cause.
While applicants must be US citizens or qualified aliens who incurred funeral expenses after January 20th of last year, there is no requirement that the person who died was a US citizen.
“We want to make sure we do it in an empathetic way,” said Fenton. “We will do this through a 1-800 number rather than an online registration. We think that, again with empathy being the priority, we want to be able to case manage and have that human to human interaction as we do this.”
FEMA says those who are eligible for funeral assistance will receive a check by mail, or the funds can be provided by direct deposit depending upon which option is chosen at the time of application.
For Erika Martinez, it likely means finally focusing on sharing her father and brother’s memory.
She doesn’t have children of her own yet, she said. “But my future kids will know who their uncle and who their grandfather was. And how much they were loved and are going to be loved forever.”
- Study: 3 feet of distance in a classroom could be enough to limit the spread of COVID-19
- Doctors say comments made at Governor DeSantis' public health roundtable were 'disheartening'
- Publix says employees will get leftover COVID-19 vaccines
- Social media 'influencers' paid thousands of Florida taxpayers' money to promote virtual vacations
- What you need to know about ticks in Florida
►Breaking news and weather alerts: Get the free 10 Tampa Bay app
►Stay In the Know! Sign up now for the Brightside Blend Newsletter
