Burial Insurance & Social Security – 2023 Guide

Questions about Social Security and final expenses? How much insurance can you get with SSI? What if I’m disabled?

These are all common questions about Social Security and it’s impact on final expenses and burial life insurance.

In this guide we will answer these questions and more about Social Security and what you need to know about looking for burial life insurance to pay for your final expenses so no one in your family has any financial burden.

Table Of Contents

• Does Social Security Help With Funeral Or Cremations Expenses?
• When A Person Dies When Does Social Security Stop?
• How To Get The Death Benefit From Social Security
• Social Security Vs SSI Vs SSDI
• Will Burial Life Insurance Affect SSI?
• How To Buy Burial Life Insurance On SSI
• Will Inheritance Affect My SSI?
  
  

Does Social Security Help With Funeral Or Cremation Expenses?

Social Security will pay out a $255 death benefit to the surviving spouse or child. As you can see this is not very much.

The money is owed to the widow or widower if they were living together at the time of death, if they were separate and collecting spousal benefits, or were living separate and the surviving spouse is eligible for survivor benefits.

If the spouse is not eligible, the payment will go to a surviving son or daughter.

In the end, no matter who gets the Social Security pay out it is no where close to being enough to pay for all of the final expenses.

When A Person Dies When Does Social Security Stop?

A person must live a full month to be eligible to receive Social Security. So payments will stop the month the person dies.

There is no prorating of Social Security benefits.

How Do You Get The Death Benefit From Social Security?

You can find all of the information and forms needed to get the death benefit from social security here.

Social Security Vs SSI Vs SSDI

Social Security – The normal retirement income that every seniors receives when they reach a certain age. Everyone pays into this program.

SSI – Supplemental Security Income program that is run by the Social Security Administration. This program is only reserved for people of the lowest incomes, and you must make below this amount to qualify.

SSDI – Social Security Disability Insurance is also run by the Social Security Administration and is available to people who are disabled. Only the status of your disability affects this benefit.

Will Burial Life Insurance Affect My SSI & How Much Can I Get?

If you collect normal social security due to age (65+) or due to a disability (SSDI), any type of life insurance will not effect your social security payment. The only way your payment may change is if you collect supplemental social security income (SSI), which is reserved for people with very low incomes.

If you are collecting supplemental social security income, the maximum amount of life insurance of any kind you can get without it penalizing you is $1,500 in death benefit. This is not very much!

Anything more than that and the Social Security Administration will deem that as a “resource” and you may stop being eligible for supplemental social security income.

However, there 2 ways around this predicament…

How To Buy Burial Life Insurance On SSI

If you are on SSI there are two ways to get more burial life insurance on yourself without it counting as income and going over the SSI limit of $1,500.

1. Set the owner of the policy to be someone else, like a family member. If you buy burial life insurance and you are on SSI, the cash value of the insurance is not in your name, and does not count as assets to you. We help people do this every day.

2. Buy term life insurance. Term life insurance has no cash value, and you can buy as much term life insurance as you want on SSI. Keep in mind that most term policies never pay out because people out live the term and the insurance expires.

Most people are not eligible for supplemental social security income as you must make below a very small amount of income to collect it anyway.

Will Inheritance Effect My SSI Benefits?

Since normal Social Security and SSDI are both contribution based, you collect those benefits no matter if you receive inheritance or not.

However, if you collect supplement social security income (SSI), then collecting even a modest inheritance could put you over the income/asset limit and end or reduce SSI payments.

Summary

As you can see, Social Security will barely pay anything for your final expenses. It’s on you to make sure that your family has no financial burden when you die.

If you want quotes for burial life insurance, you can fill out our quote form to get them for free. If you don’t want to put your information in the form, you can call us for a free quote from some of the top burial life insurance companies.

We represent all of the top companies in the industry and can find you the lowest rates available.

We look forward to hearing from you!