Bereaved families forced into 'pauper funerals' because of sky high cost of send offs
THE average cost of organising a funeral has rocketed so high record numbers of grieving families are forced in to having “miserable ‘pauper" send offs.
The average cost of a basic funeral is nearly £4,000
The Commons Work and Pensions Committee gave a “distressing” example of a mother being forced to freeze her son’s body for months while she saved to pay for a funeral.
In a damning report published today, MPs warned funeral directors are taking advantage of bereaved families by increasing charges beyond inflation.
Some are denied their relative’s ashes because of a shortfall in the final payment.
The number of public health funerals has risen by 11 per cent in the past four years
The average cost of a basic funeral is nearly £4,000, up from £1,000 in 1986, according to the mutual insurer Royal London.
There are also regional variations in the cost of funerals, with a burial costing £3,000 in Belfast while relatives can spend £7,000 on the same funeral in Kent.
Although the Government provides uncapped help with “necessary costs” such as burial plot or cremation costs - the £700 social fund funeral payment (SFFP) for other funeral expenses has been “dramatically eroded”, MPs ruled.
This means the funeral support payments now no longer covers the cost of a “simple funeral”.
Some are denied their relative’s ashes because of missed payments
The staggering costs are forcing more people into so-called pauper funerals and the number of public health funerals, carried out by the local authority, as risen by 11 per cent in the past four years.
The report called for the Government to negotiate with funeral directors to make simple “fair funerals” a reasonable cost, while setting the maximum SFFP accordingly.
A Marie Curie spokesman said: “Funeral purchases are made at a highly emotional distressing period.
“Bereaved people have compared funeral arrangements to ‘distress purchases’, when normal market behaviours such as shopping around for the best price are absent.”
There are huge regional variations in funeral costs
The MPs said poor families, under time constraints and emotional pressure, often turned to payday lenders to meet the high costs.
However funeral directors blamed the rising costs on the increased cost of cremation.
The Royal London said that cuts in funding to local authorities had forced some councils to increase crematorium fees.