Yahoo Finance’s Kristin Myers and Stephanie Asymkos discuss FEMA’s program to cover COVID-related funeral costs.

Video Transcript

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KRISTIN MYERS: Welcome back. Time now for our Your Money Segment. The government will be providing funds to help people pay for the funerals of those that died from coronavirus. We have Yahoo Finance's Stephanie Asymkos here with those details. Hi, Stephanie.

STEPHANIE ASYMKOS: Hi, Kristin. That's right, a little bit depressing to talk about this. However, eligible Americans can receive up to $9,000 reimbursement for COVID-19 funeral related expenses. And if someone lost multiple friends or family members, that person can receive up to $35,500 in funeral reimbursements.

And this actually coming through FEMA. And it actually opened up a dedicated hotline this week for people that can apply for the program for COVID-19 related deaths retroactive to January 20, 2020. So at the very outset of the pandemic, going all the way back.

KRISTIN MYERS: OK, so I'm going to ask you to go through how you can apply in just a moment. But let's start first with this, who is eligible for these funds?

STEPHANIE ASYMKOS: Of course. So it is adult US citizens and non-citizen nationals can apply on behalf of their deceased friends or family members, and even those who are actually also undocumented. So if funeral expenses were split among several individuals, what FEMA suggests is that one person is the applicant and then another person can be a co-applicant.

KRISTIN MYERS: All right, and how does one apply if you want to tap into that up to $9,000?

STEPHANIE ASYMKOS: Right. So applications are going to be accepted by phone only. FEMA has this dedicated hotline that is open pretty much all day. And through my reporting, I found that the quote is about 20 minutes for the application process. And before people call, they're encouraged to gather some documents that they'll have to show. One of them being a death certificate from the United States that lists COVID-19 as the primary cause of death. And then funeral expenses.

So things like dated and itemized receipts from funeral homes and contracts.

KRISTIN MYERS: All right, thanks so much Yahoo Finance's Stephanie Asymkos for bringing us those details. Again, incredibly tragic story. But hopefully, it gives a little bit of an economic relief to some of those families that are suffering.