When my Mother died, I applied for her one-time death benefit, I think it was 250.00. It is it meant to be applied to the burial costs. My Mother was only 53, was still employed and not receiving any monthly SS checks. At the time, in 1973, I was clueless, and the local funeral director told me of this and in fact he took me to the local SS office to apply for it. This death benefit is available, regardless of any life insurance policy, if they had ever paid into the SS system. Many people do not know to apply for this benefit. This does not apply for retired teachers & government employees who are "covered" under their own plans. Beyond that, the monthly SS benefits are intended,of course, for the dependent and/or disabled children and a disabled spouse if she has been receiving benefits already from her husbands SS account. When she becomes SS age then she can apply for regular monthly benefits. A side note, neither of my parents death benefits ever appeared on the SSDI website that we researchers love to use. Have heard that same scenario from some others. If you happen to have the SS number, you can still easily apply for the application by printing out the form from the web, but it has tripled in price the last couple of years. -- Nancy M. Meyers, Lorain OH Genealogy Lookup Volunteer http://www.centurytel.net/lorgen