Deathly silence over ticking time bomb of costly funerals

THE price of a funeral has risen by six per cent on last year as almost a fifth of people struggle to pay the costs, new research reveals today.

The basic cost of a funeral is now £3,284 – up 6.2 per cent on last year and 71 per cent on 2004, according to the annual Sun Life Direct Cost of Dying report.

Burial costs made up the largest increase (9.6 per cent) while cremation costs were up 6.6 per cent and funeral directors’ fees rose by 5.3 per cent. A large part of the increase in burial costs is due to land shortages and pressure on available sites for redevelopment.

The report found 17 per cent of those paying for a funeral struggled with the cost, with 20 per cent of these putting the outstanding balance on a credit card, 10 per cent borrowing money from a loan provider and 9 per cent selling belongings to raise the cash.

The Government’s Social Fund Funeral Payment Scheme, designed to contribute to the cost of funerals for the most vulnerable, is also struggling to meet mounting demand, with the situation likely to deteriorate as costs increase, economic austerity continues and the population continues to age and grow.

Earlier this year a survey of environmental health chiefs revealed an ever-increasing reluctance among family members to contribute to funeral costs. A growing number said they either could not afford or were not prepared to pay for the expenses of a relative – forcing councils to foot the bill.

The conference of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health heard that the economy was largely to blame. Last year 3,000 funerals were organised and paid for by councils across the UK. Under the 1984 Public Health Act, councils pay for a funeral if someone dies outside a hospital and there is no-one available to meet the cost.

The council will later attempt to recover the funds from the deceased’s family, but this is time-consuming and the family may not have the money or may be unwilling to pay up. In 2010/11 just over three-quarters of these public health funerals were for men, and just over half were for people aged over 65.

Simon Cox of Sun Life Direct said: “We must encourage people to look ahead and start planning in advance. The industry needs to ensure that suitable options are available for people to take financial responsibility for their own funerals. A difficult economic climate and increasing demand on public services make further state support unlikely. The vulnerable are too poor to die and we cannot let this situation continue.”

Dr Kate Woodthorpe, a lecturer in sociology at the University of Bath’s Centre For Death and Society, said: “There is still a sense in some quarters that their death is someone else’s problem. As a forward-thinking nation we should encourage and help people to take responsibility for their own circumstances.

“National debate on social care in old age is focusing on the role of the individual in financial provision and the matter of funeral cover should not be left out of this conversation. The number of deaths each year is expected to rise by 17 per cent over the next 15 years and the issue of funeral affordability deserves urgent attention.”

Her colleague, researcher Dr Hannah Rumble, who also contributed to the independent report for Sun Life, said: “There are various elements to this, including a cultural thing that a lot of people I’ve interviewed about the Social Fund Payment Scheme seemed to think the state would automatically pay for a funeral if they could not. The fact is that the scheme only ever pays a contribution of between around £800 and £1,300. Those applying also have to be in receipt of certain benefits, and they still have to find the rest of the cost and end up in debt to a funeral director.

“We do not have a good model in this country, unlike many others around the globe, where a basic respectable funeral is paid for by the state out of general taxation or a church tithe system. If you want any additional frills, the family pays for those.”

“All the discussion around the elderly here is to do with the cost of care, but what about the issue of dying?

“Typically, those who can’t afford funeral costs are worried sick and, far from being scroungers, they are often people who have worked all their life in jobs that don’t pay well and if they have saved a bit towards their funeral that money has had to be used to pay for care for a sick elderly relative. Or they have been paying into a funeral plan and had to stop due to lack of funds... This whole business is a mess and a time bomb.”

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