Virtually everyone who leaves a spouse or dependent child. If your social security taxes were paid faithfully during your working years, there may have a check coming to your survivors. It may not be much ($255), but you've paid for it in advance, so get it. Your funeral director will complete the paperwork (remind him) and file the claim for you as part of his services, or you can use the contact information in the program/book's Sources Index.
As for veterans, there's a whole pile of qualifying dates, duration and character of service, and so forth you must satisfy in order to receive VA benefits. Entitlements can range from complete (or at least generous) burial allowances for those who die while on active duty, to burial in a national cemetery, a flag and honor guard for those who served honorably during designated periods over the past hundred years, even aircraft fly-overs.
Since the matrix for calculating who is entitled to what is so involved, we'll post a couple of links on the ADDITIONAL SOURCES page you can click on to take you to respective sites that discuss it in detail.
If you'd like a flag for the casket, contact your local post office. The VA-provided plaques and monuments are quite nice and yours for the asking if you qualify. You'll still have to have it installed, but compared to the cost of buying a monument these are a good deal. Again, the funeral director can (and should) file the necessary paperwork for this.
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