The rise in Paupers funerals

The cost of even a basic funeral is beyond the reach of a lot of people. Families are often under increased financial strain at this time as they may have had to reduce working hours or give up altogether to care for the sick person.
I don't know what the answer is, I think funeral directors need to look at their charges and not be so greedy. People still want to provide a 'good send off' for their loved ones, perhaps we should look more at eco friendly burials etc. Maybe burials will not be possible in the future for several reasons.

Actually, Gilly it’s possible to do all that’s necessary for under a £1000 or less, depending on hoe “homemade” you want it to be. If you are on benefits you can get a grant of £700, so I can’t see why anybody would need thousandsto bury a loved one.

I think it’s a bit like weddings. The expectations have grown and grown. Cars, flowers, a do afterwards, Ive even had a present to take home with me afterwards, funeral favours.

Nothing wrong with everyone going in their own cars, a bunch of fliers from the garden and a cup of tea at home. That’s what we used to do.

Me, I’m going straight to the crematorium. They can scatter my ashes under a tree and that’s it.

Flowers, flowers!

I have left instructions I want the most basic and cheapest of funerals however my son has said to my daughter ‘well I m not having that’ It’s like people equate love with show
I don’t care if they put me in the ground in a shroud or a plastic blooming bag I WONT know

Apparently the cost of a very basic burial is now over £4000 and a basic cremation over £3000 (rising depending on where you are in the country).

This is a massive amount of money for anyone to find. People are getting into debt to pay for their loved ones funeral.

I agree, Gilly, it is a lot. But as I said you don’t have to have the florists flowers, the limousines, the drinks do afterwards.

Oh may want to, but you don’t have to.

When my son died last year, we had him taken straight from funeral directors to crematorium so no hearse or cars, one floral tribute and a celebrant, we did the after service tea ourselves and the cost was still just short of £4,000.

My husband's funeral in 2009 cost nearly £4000 and that was the most basic cremation. We did have a "wake" afterwards which was extra but as he had a large family and lots of friends and colleagues it seemed the right thing to do. I paid for it by selling the car, otherwise I would have had to try to get a loan. The funeral directors were threatening me with bailiffs before I managed to raise the money. The Government payout to widows is only about half the cost of a funeral.

Disgusting isn’t it ?

I wonder how much the actual cost is ? And how much these funeral directors make in profits ?

I’ve looked it up and there really is a limit as to what you can do yourself .

I was first acquainted with how much funerals cost when I buried my mother nearly 10 years ago, as others have said around £4,000 but hey it was her money and I carefully followed her instructions to the letter, full requiem mass and burial. Catholics can do cremations but her priest gave me the impression they are still a bit huffy about that. It's a hell of a lot of money if there aren't any proceeds from deceased's estate and yes I find the idea of pauper's funerals awful like something left over from the darkest days of the 19th century, as for telling relatives they can't attend appalling

My grandma left strict instructions for hers too . She was a devout catholic and wanted “the works” in church but she surprised me by telling her priest that she wished to be cremated and have her ashes scattered in a special place she shared with my grandad .

I’ve been to 2 funerals in 2 weeks both were quite lavish affairs ( can funerals be lavish ?) the one on Thursday must’ve been at least £ 10k !

I find it terribly sad ( disgusting actually) that many paupers funerals don’t allow anyone to attend and that they withhold dates from relatives .

It seems one council has been named

Good . They deserve to be both named and shamed Anniebach

I used to arrange so called 'pauper' funerals for the Local Authority I worked for. Sometimes the deceased had no traceable living relatives and sometimes relatives would refuse to pay even though there was Insurance pay outs.
We used to treat all of them with respect and sometimes the funeral directors and myself were the only ones attending the service.
The most distressing scenarios where they had died alone at home and we had to search through all their belongings to see if there were cash or valuables to go towards the costs. If there were friends who knew them we would try to connect with whichever Church denomination they thought would be best.
We never stopped anyone attending and often through the government solicitors sent any money left over from the estate to home and overseas relatives. You would be surprised how many countries would be involved and how long it took for everything to be sorted.
This was about 20 years ago so I am not sure what the situation is now.

Not cheeriest of topics for the weekend but Coop are currently advertising basic funeral for £1675.

my late mum didn't want money spent on things she thought unimportant .When my sister and I went to pick out a coffin we were quite shocked at the sales person trying to up the cost .We knew what we wanted to spend and she kept insisting that the more expensive of the coffins would be most suitable.Some families who are grief stricken would have caved in and spent money they didn't have/didn't want to spend.The more expensive coffin with the expensive handles and name plaque was still going into the flames so where was the sense .There wasn't any sense just funeral directors looking to up the profit.In an ideal world coffins and all the paraphanalia of funerals would be standardised to save folk the difficulty of trying to stay within budget when they are vulnerable

Taking advantage at the time of grief paddyann as though you don’t care or didn’t love them enough, unless you spend more money .

I had to pay £1,000 for a funeral 20 years ago, a very basic funeral at that.
I don’t believe all councils refuse to let close family attend a funeral where the council pays, perhaps some families refuse to pay anything at all?

About 25 years ago a tramp that my friends and I used to give free drinks and sandwiches to (we worked in a cafe) was found dead. He had no family so the council arranged the funeral. We were told when it was and , although we couldn't attend because we were all working, we were able to send flowers.

I think the funeral director I used when my husband cost more than some but when you have just lost a loved one you just go to the nearest place, you are not fit to search around for the best deal as you would for other big expenses. I think this is one reason funerals cost so much.
My other gripe is that insurance can take months to pay out and funeral directors chase their money. Neither business is helpful to the bereaved.

I don’t think it is all councils who refuse to let relatives attend a paupers funeral lemon just some of them . Those ones should be named and shamed .

My mothers funeral in 2007 was an eco funeral (her request) we had a wicker coffin, and just the hearse we followed in our own car. We had simple flowers we did ourselves and a friend did the service, she was given a woodland burial. The cheapest part of the organised bit was the burial plot which cost £500 even so the whole affair cost £4500! The funeral Directors refused to even plan the funeral until I had shown them proof that the funds were there to settle the bill? fortunately for us the cost was available straightaway from my mother’s estate but we would have struggled to find £4,500 as we had a young family! I cannot see what the huge costs of these funerals is on, it appears that the funeral directors just have the bereaved over a barrel. We used a director recommended to us as we were having to organise the funeral from 100 miles away and in any event as an only child with no aunts or uncles cousins etc I was not in any emotional state to quibble?

My council now offers a low cost funeral service with a dignified cremation at one of the council's crematoria costing £1,643. This includes:

a coffin
a funeral service with a minister
all crematorium and doctor’s fees
music of your choice.

That’s the way forward bmacca . A dignified funeral at a fair price. Anyone who wants/ can afford extras can pay for them.

It’s a pity all councils didn’t do the same.