Funeral charges?

[Cooldryplace]

Currently arranging DH's funeral.

We haven't gone for the cheapest of everything, but not far from it. DH said he should be buried in a cardboard box!

So hearse plus one car from the house, cheapest coffin, celebrant, order of service and one floral thing are the only extras and the cost is a couple of quid less than £5k.

Now, this isn't going to cause me any hardship, I've just agreed to things without shopping around for an easy life, but I imagine there must be very many families for whom this is just out of the question.

Their budget package, which you couldn't change in any way was £3k

The FD has been very attentive and things like flowers, cars and printing don't seem extortionate. The general undertaking fee and the crematorium charge do though.

I suppose families have to borrow to give dad a good (any) send off, but how heart breaking.

FWIW I did investigate the possibility of a cardboard coffin and it was £650!

A lot of GPS donate the £82 crem fees to charity.

I inherited some money from an aunt a few years ago and husband and I have paid for our funerals, nothing fancy, no cars, no flowers - a jam jar with a few twigs from the hedge will do us, a humanist celebrant (a friend is one and will do it if I go first) and a simple burial in a wildflower meadow. We could choose our plots and decided on adjacent ones in the middle of the field. No headstones there, just small plaques on the ground with our names and dates. Sheep graze in there. Can't remember what we paid, but it will be much more by the time we go. A good idea if you can pay up front.

It does help if people give some indication of what they would like. We've had to arrange several over the years and it's useful to know.

@AnnaMagnani

I don't mean to argue that the GP didn't visit and obviously don't know your circumstances.

The Government Guidance however is clear that either the person writing the form or another medical practioner should have seen the body and you need to write their GMC number on the form.

Ultimately it would be down to what the local Crematorium Referee will accept.

Well I don't known what should have happened, but it's definitely fact that the GP never saw the body and charged £82. From what the FD said, I'd say that's quite usual in these circumstances.

The GP asked me, on the phone, if relative was taken to the local undertakes. Pure Cremation had taken him miles away to their crematorium, He would have liked the journey. I think the GP was surprised and hadn't had dealings with the firm before

My DF didn’t want a funeral and we arranged a direct cremation - this still cost £1000. All of us in the family are going to arrange the same. Don’t want the DCs wasting any of the money we leave them!

@Buccanarab

It's not something I've spent a great deal of time thinking about or looking into so apologies if this is a daft question, but who is actually responsible for burial/cremation of a deceased person?

As in if you couldn't afford a funeral/burial/cremation, or just didn't want to pay for one, what would happen?

It's called a public health funeral.arranged by local authority. No one can attend

It's all changed with Covid.

The GP didn't charge £82 - it's a national price for doing the form. Funeral Directors add it automatically - I've never 'charged' for doing one but I've certainly been paid it. And without the form there is no cremation.

Some people on certain benefits can get the DWP funeral grant if they cannot pay. I deal with a lot of bereaved people and many use the bereavement support payment lump sum to help with funeral cost also. This is £2500 if no dependent children and £3500 if you have dependent children.
Sorry for your loss.

@AnnaMagnani

Also for a cremation form, the doctor has to see the body. Even with Covid, this requirement hasn't been changed, although it has been reduced from two doctors to one.

So the GP has gone to see the body, you just don't know about it. It usually happens at the Funeral Directors.

Under Coronavirus emergency legislation, most of the time there is NO requirement to view the body in order to complete the Cremation Form 4. I run a Medical Examiner service in a large NHS trust covering inpatient and community deaths and have been using these regulations throughout the last year.

The legislation states: “If the doctor who attended the patient (either by remote video consultation or in person) within the last 28 days is unable to complete the form or it is impractical for them to do so, then any medical practitioner is able to complete a form 4. However they can only do so when the MCCD was completed on the basis that the deceased was attended within 28 days of the death or where a medical practitioner has viewed the body after death, even if only for the purpose of verification.

Examination of the body after death is not required if the deceased was either seen after death by a medical practitioner or attended (in person or by video consultation) within the last 28 days.” Taken from here: www.themdu.com/guidance-and-advice/latest-updates-and-advice/certifying-deaths-during-covid-19-outbreak

So as long as the deceased has been seen by a medical practitioner within the last 28 days there is no requirement to view the body.

I’m so sorry for your loss @Cooldryplace

Earlier this year I became a funeral arranger and I've been blown away with the amount of work involved in arranging everything. There is so much form filling, liaising with third parties, admin relating to organising music, slideshows, orders of service etc. Then there's organising chapel visits, daily checks of the deceased and so on, I just never realised.

My advice to anyone here is to invest in a pre-paid funeral plan. You'll save about £1K overall and the funeral directors fees will be guaranteed at today's prices, so if you live another 20 years, you'll still pay 2021 prices. The only thing that will change are the third party fees such as crematorium, doctors fees, etc which we have no control over. Plans can be paid off monthly by DD so you don't have to fork out the full amount in one go.

For those arranging the funeral of a loved one, if you don't have the funds yourself we can work with the deceased's bank (if they had the funds) so that the bank pays the bill, or likewise we can work with the solicitor if it's being paid out of their estate after probate.

Oh, and don't opt for a cardboard coffin, they're more expensive than the wood veneer ones.

It's expensive! I work for a church so kind of an occupational hazard to be supporting people and organising services. The fee for the crematorium varies by location, some people have a direct cremation (no service at crematorium) and instead have a church service or humanist/non religious celebration of life at another location. We print in house which is cheaper for instance and arrange flowers at cost, I've heard of £1000 flower bills recently from fd's.

But if you need any help/advice do get in touch, I've organised hundreds, perhaps thousands both religious and secular.

Take care of yourself

@Skade agree. My Mum died of Covid in April 2020. I spoke to the GP who certified death she confirmed she hadn't seen Mum at time of death but had a few days before.

They are very expensive, but you don't have to have a funeral at all. It's becoming increasingly popular to have a direct cremation (especially during the pandemic) where the undertakers arrange a cremation without any attendees, take a quiet slot and just tell the family when its happened. Much cheaper.

When DP died last year he had a "simple funeral". It still cost over £3000. We had the basic coffin, a hearse only, no other cars and I arranged the flowers. One of the biggest expenses was the cremation fee. Apparently the council has one of the most expensive cremation rates in the country!

Other pps have mentioned the celebrant. Ours was great. Because of Covid she had to do our initial meeting over Zoom but she obviously asked the right questions because her oration was beautiful considering she had never met DP.

It was as dignified and moving as a Covid funeral could be but expensive.

Sorry for your loss.

We had fairly basic funerals for my dad and my FIL but they were still expensive. I've decided just to have direct cremation for myself. It's all organised and paid for; total cost was £1,495.

I want dh to do the same so that dd or I don't need to try and organise a funeral while we're grieving. He doesn't mind what happens after he's died (his exact words were "I'm really not bothered; you can take me to the tip for all I care") so a direct cremation would be ideal but he's refusing to get anything organised in advance.

I’m sure lots of funeral providers feel privilidged to support grieving families but that doesn’t mean they aren’t making a lot of money out of it.

There is a reason that the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) have investigated funeral providers and made new legislation to make their prices more transparent. INFO HERE
One of the concerns that prompted the CMA to investigate funeral providers was
“The rise in cost of organising a funeral, the essential elements of which have increased by 6% each year – twice the inflation rate – for the last 14 years. Funerals typically cost several thousand pounds which is a significant outlay for households”.

I don’t doubt there are good funeral providers about but as a whole they take advantage of people when they are vulnerable. There is a reason they are generally very profitable. I think it stinks.

I'm not (really) complaining about the cost. I can see why it costs what it does, I just think it's a huge amount of money for some families at what's an already difficult time.

That said, I used to be a business bank manager and had a Funeral Director client. He would proudly tell me of the techniques he used to "upsell" to grieving families. I know, a business like any other, I suppose, but...

So sorry for your loss.

My grandad died very unexpectedly in May, and the funeral was last month.

Burial, plot and funeral directors was just under £12K.

£4K was a non resident charge, he lived 0.5mile from the (London) borough boundary.

Interesting fact.
You can buy cardboard coffins at some supermarkets in South Africa. I’m not sure how that would go down in the UK

AnnaMagnani I'm sure you can find someone else to argue with. The OP has very recently lost her husband.

OP I am so so terribly sorry for your loss. I wish you happiness in the future x

My DH died 18 months ago. His funeral costs were just under £4,000.
Basic coffin, hearse and one limousine seating 7 people. He was cremated as were his own wishes, we got the ashes back a week later.
He did not want a Requiem Mass as he was a non church goer, but included in the cost was the priest's services at the crematorium.
Fortunately his life insurance covered it all, and he had given me access to his bank account a year previously as he knew he was dying.We provided a spray of flowers £150, cost of meal at the funeral wake which was in a private room in a pub £200. Mourners bought their own drinks.
I have since taken out a funeral plan for myself which covers almost everything including cost of the wake.I am putting extra money aside for Requiem Mass which as I am a practising catholic means a lot to me.None of my children attend church so I am making sure I have one by doing that
I do not like the idea of pure cremation, but I know and understand there are people who prefer it.I wanting to be cremated as I wish for my body to be disposed of quickly not rotting away in the soil.
A humorous aspect I can remember from my career as a nurse re. cremation forms.Hospital doctors referred to it as Ash Cash.

I had to sort my nans, I went through co-op and did a bronze deal I think, just over £3k

It’s a lot of money that families have to spend. Luckily I will have enough in savings to cover mine. However, my first choice in the event of my death is having my body delivered to the local university medical school. So it shouldn’t cost anything and I will continue to be useful. Once the students have learnt everything they can from me I will be cremated and the university will hold a very nice ceremony for all of us who bequeathed our bodies for medical science. I hope my plans come to pass when I do.

Here is a charity doing work on this issue. There is a helpline to call for advice re costs:

quakersocialaction.org.uk/we-can-help/helping-funerals/down-earth