Funeral poverty- recent advances to eliminate it
Funeral poverty- recent advances to eliminate it by Kristina Kennedy-Aguero
Funeral poverty is the term given to the circumstances when the cost of a funeral exceeds that which a person can pay. As funeral prices increase, more people are finding it hard to cover this essential expense. Fortunately, recently passed legislation will help to make pricing more transparent. This will allow people to inform themselves better and so make choices that suit their situation.
How much does a funeral cost?
With the current sanitary crisis, funerals have had to become much smaller simpler affairs. Perhaps, this will encourage people to consider the possibility of continuing in a less expensive manner. This year, a basic funeral costs £4,184. However, many people are paying much more than this can ascend to £9,263 for a "proper send-off".
How will the new guidelines reduce funeral poverty?
On June 16th this year the Competition Market Authority introduced new orders for the funeral industry. This requires that all funeral directors must display a Standardised Price List at their premises from September 16th 2021.
This must include the following
- A headline price of the funeral
- List each individual item that comprises the total cost of the funeral
- A list that details the prices of optional and additional services or products
Furthermore, as of June 17th 2021, funeral directors may not-
- Make incentive payments to hospitals, hospices, care homes, palliative care services. or similar, to refer clients to them.
- Additionally, from this date, crematorium operators must also provide customers and funeral directors with specified price information.
With these new orders, clients will be able to clearly see the price of each service. This will allow them to decide what services are essential to them, and those which are not. In this way, people who are suffering from funeral poverty will be empowered to better budget the money they have available.
Other ways to reduce funeral poverty
People should check out several options. Understandably, at this sad time, many families do not want to shop around. However, they could save themselves a considerable sum of money by comparing prices.
Additionally, most people are not familiar with the industry and the kinds of funerals that are available. Informing themselves about the different options could help them avoid funeral poverty. One low-cost option is direct cremation, which is becoming increasingly popular. You can find out all about this in our blog post by clicking here.
