‘Today is the day’: Schumer, AOC tout launch of hotline to help New Yorkers cover COVID funeral costs
New Yorkers who lost loved ones to COVID-19 can finally get help from the federal government to cover the costs of funeral and burial arrangements, a couple of the Empire State’s congressional Democrats announced Monday after months of advocacy.
Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who began a joint push for establishing a funeral cost reimbursement program nearly a year ago, said the Federal Emergency Management Agency has now officially launched a hotline that New Yorkers can call to submit claims.
“We’re very excited to say that today is the today. The hotline is open and because that hotline is open you can call into FEMA and start that process today,” Ocasio-Cortez said during a press conference in the Corona section of Queens, which she represents.
The hotline — (844) 684-6333 — will be manned by FEMA call center staff.
“The phone number is run by people who are understanding, compassionate and speak multiple languages,” Schumer said.
New Yorkers can receive upward of $9,000 per funeral. Eligible expenses span anything from transportation, urns and caskets to production of death certificates, clergy services and arrangements of ceremonies.
Applicants must be able to submit a death certificate confirming that the relative died from COVID-19 on U.S. soil after Jan. 20, 2020, along with receipts of all relevant costs.
The immigration status of the deceased will not be considered. However, applicants need to either be U.S. citizens, residents, asylees, refugees or noncitizen nationals.
The FEMA program, which is also being operated on a national level, does not currently have a cap and is being bankrolled by a federal disaster declaration.
A large chunk of the program’s money is likely to go to New York, where more than 50,000 residents have died from COVID-19 since the pandemic hit in early 2020.
There are no income restrictions on the funeral aid, but Ocasio-Cortez and Schumer suggested it is primarily a program meant to benefit low-income New Yorkers.
“It was our community leaders on the ground that sounded this early,” said Ocasio-Cortez, who had constituents tell her office during the peak of the pandemic last year that they were unable to bury their relatives because they couldn’t afford it.
Ocasio-Cortez noted that many death certificates issued for early victims of the pandemic may not have specified COVID-19 as the cause of death.
In such instances, applicants for the FEMA funeral program should go back to the institution that issued the certificate to get it amended.
“You can have your death certificate edited in retrospect, knowing what we know now of COVID,” she said.
After Monday’s press conference in Queens, FEMA reported that its call centers were flooded with calls, causing some “technical issues.”
Applicants who receive a busy signal while calling should try again later, the agency advised.
“We ask that applicants be patient as we work to correct these issues and have all their important documents ready when they call to apply,” FEMA said. “Please know there is no deadline to apply and applicants will have the ability to open a case.”
