2900-0003 (21P-530EZ) - Supporting Statement 2

Supporting Statement - Part A

Application for Burial Benefits (Under 38 U.S.C. Chapter 23)

Control #2900-0003

Summary of Changes from Previously Approved Collection

• Title: Application for Burial Benefits (Under 38 U.S.C. Chapter 23)

• This is a revision of a previously approved collection

• The respondent burden has not changed

• No comments were received in response to the 60-Day FRN.

1. Need for the Information Collection

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), through its Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA), administers an integrated program of benefits and services established by law for Veterans, service personnel, and their dependents and/or beneficiaries. Under the authority of 38 U.S.C. 2302, 2303, 2304, 2307, and 2308, the VA will pay burial benefits upon the death of a Veteran to certain eligible claimants. Regulatory authority is found in 38 C.F.R. 3.1700 through 3.1712.

The respondent burden has not changed. The estimated average number of receivables over the past year has remained unchanged since the last submission.

VA Form 21P-530EZ has been updated to include the following:

• Updated instructions.

• Removed “Fully Developed Claim” (FDC) information from the instructions.

• Added international phone number option to Question 11.

• Change the wording in Question 13.

• Change the wording in Question 20A.

• Split 20B into two separate questions.

• Remove “PLOT AND/OR” from Section VI heading.

• Move Question 23 to Section IV after 19B.

• Add a date signature block to Question 25B.

• Split 26A into two separate questions.

• Split 27B into two separate questions.

• Split 28B into two separate questions.

• Move “DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS HEADSTONES AND MARKERS” to the end of the instructions pages before the application begins.

2. Use of the Information

VA Form 21P-530EZ gathers the necessary information to determine eligibility for VA burial benefits, including the burial allowance, plot or interment allowance, and transportation reimbursement.

3. Use of Information Technology

VA Form 21P-530EZ is available on the benefits.va.gov website in a fillable electronic format.

VBA does not currently have the technology to allow for the direct electronic submission of the form. To ease the burden on respondents, VBA plans to develop and deploy functionality that enables electronic submission of this information. VBA cannot estimate the date this functionality will be deployed.

4. Non-Duplication

The information obtained through this collection is unique and is not already available for use or adaptation from another cleared source.

5. Burden on Small Businesses

This information collection does not impose a significant economic impact on many small businesses or entities.

6. Less Frequent Collection

The VA Form 21P-530EZ is used to gather the necessary information to determine eligibility for monetary burial benefits, including the burial allowance, plot or interment allowance, and transportation reimbursement. VBA would be unable to properly administer the burial benefits program without this collection of information. The information is collected ad hoc and, therefore, cannot be collected less frequently. The form is designed to collect the minimum amount of information, allowing VBA to administer the program properly.

7. Paperwork Reduction Act Guidelines

This information collection does not require the collection to be conducted in a manner inconsistent with the guidelines delineated in 5 CFR 1320.5(d)(2).

8. Consultation and Public Comments

Part A: PUBLIC NOTICE

A 60-Day Federal Register Notice (FRN) for the collection published on Friday, July 25, 2025. The 60-Day FRN citation is 90 FRN 35382.

No comments were received during the 60-Day Comment Period.

A 30-Day Federal Register Notice for the collection published on Friday, September 26, 2025 the 30-Day FRN citation is 90 FRN 46464.

Part B: CONSULTATION (2-4 sentences)

No additional consultation apart from soliciting public comments through the Federal Register was conducted for this submission.

9. Gifts or Payment

No payments or gifts are being offered to respondents as an incentive to participate in the collection.

10. Confidentiality

The records are maintained in the appropriate Privacy Act System of Records identified as “Compensation, Pension, Education, and Veteran Readiness and Employment Records-VA (58VA21/22/28),” published at 74 FR 29275 on June 19, 2009, and last amended at 87 FR 8740 (February 16, 2022).

11. Sensitive Questions

No questions considered sensitive are being asked in this collection.

12. Respondent Burden and its Labor Costs

1. Number of Respondents is estimated at 132,055 per year.

2. Frequency of Response is one time.

3. Annual burden hours are 66,028 hours.

4. The estimated completion time for this form is 30 minutes.

5. VA cannot make further assumptions about the population of respondents because of the variability of factors such as the educational background and wage potential of respondents. Therefore, VBA used general wage data to estimate the respondents’ costs associated with completing the information collection.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) gathers information on full-time wage and salary workers.  According to the latest available BLS data, the mean hourly wage is $32.66 based on the BLS wage code – “00-0000 All Occupations.”  This information was taken from the following website: https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/industry/000000.

Legally, respondents may not pay a person or business for assistance in completing the information collection. Therefore, there are no expected overhead costs for completing the information collection. VBA estimates the total cost to all respondents to be $2,156,474.48 (66,028 burden hours x $32.66 per hour).

13. Respondent Costs Other Than Burden Hour Costs

There are no annualized costs to respondents other than the labor burden costs addressed in Section 12 of this document to complete this collection.

14. Cost to the Federal Government

Grade	Step	Burden Time	Fraction of Hour	Hourly Rate	Cost Per Response	Total Responses	Total
9	3	20	0.08	$35.74	11.91	132,055	$ 1,572,775.05
Overhead at 100% Salary							$ 1,572,775.05
12	3	15	0.05	$51.83	12.96	132,055	$ 1,711,432.80
Overhead at 100% Salary							$ 1,711,432.80
Processing / Analyzing Costs							$ 6,568,415.70
Printing and Production Cost							$ 72,982.40
Total Cost to Government							$ 6,641,398.10

Overhead costs are 100% of salary and are the same as the wage listed above and the amounts are included in the total. 

Printing and production costs approximates the cost of printing this information collection per year. (Processing/Analyzing Cost total divided by $90).

Note: The hourly wage information above is based on the hourly 2024 General Schedule (Base) Pay (Pay & Leave : Salaries & Wages - OPM.gov). This rate does not include any locality adjustment as applicable.

The processing time estimates above are based on the actual amount of time employees of each grade level spend to process to completion a claim received on this form. The within-grade step (3) of each employee represents the average experience of employees within each grade.

15. Reasons for Change in Burden

There has been no change in burden since the last approval.

16. Publication of Results

The results of this information collection will not be published.

17. Non-Display of OMB Expiration Date

We are not seeking approval to omit the display of the expiration date of the OMB approval on the collection instrument.

18. Exceptions to “Certification for Paperwork Reduction Submissions”

We are not requesting any exemptions to the provisions stated in 5 CFR 1320.9.