Bill back on the table to increase Social Security Lump-Sum Death Benefit

January 2, 2026/Business, Regulations/

Back in September 2024 Funeral Director Daily let you know that the Social Secuirty Survivor Benefits Equity Act had been introduced to the the United States House of Representatives. While the bill failed to go anywhere at that time – possibly because of the impending Presidential election and eventual change of leadership – as of December 4, 2025, the bill has been re-introduced.

The bill, if passed, would “boost Social Security’s lump-sum death benefit in 2026, from $255 to $2,900, indexing it for inflation annually thereafter.”

According to this article from Think Advisor, “The legislation would adjust benefits for the first time in more than 70 years to cover costs associated with cremation or burials and index the SSA death benefit to the Consumer Price Index “to ensure this benefit is aligned with other Social Security benefits,” such as cost-of-living adjustments.”

Senator Peter Welch of Vermont made this comment in the article, “Funeral costs should be the last thing on the minds of grieving families when they lose a loved one. But because benefits designed to help folks afford funeral expenses haven’t kept pace with inflation, the cost of burying a loved one has become top of mind for many mourning families. This commonsense bill, inspired by the experiences of Vermonters, will update Social Security death benefits to help alleviate financial burdens for families following the loss of a loved one.”

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take: While providing more government money at the time of death sounds like a positive thing for those in the Death Care profession, I have an apprehensive attitude about this pending legislation. I put the sound of this legislation in the “Be careful what you wish for” category.

A lump-sum death benefit of $2,900 would probably be enough money to completely pay for a Direct Cremation with No Services (DCNS) in any metropolitan area of the United States. And, I’m guessing that that is how many of the DCNS operators would frame their advertising with a suggestion that using the Social Security payment would cover the family’s Death Care obligations.

So, those of you who operate businesses that offer other types of disposition services with what I would guess is a higher consumer cost and higher margins for your firm would probably be facing more and more competition by the DCNS groups. Quite frankly, I think the idea of paying for Death Care services via a federal payment would be very appealing to many consumers who may forsake other disposition types to make sure they had no “Out-of-Pocket” expenses.

Finally, I’m also more-or-less opposed for the fact that it makes what I believe an individual expense into a societal expense and if our businesses are going to continue to grow and bring more enterprise value to them we need to work on trimming the federal deficit . . . . not growing it.

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