Funeral costs?

[Grandadwasthatyou]

A close friend of mine had been nc with her dm for many years. Her dm has now died and friend just does not have the money to cover funeral costs. She is a single mother and lives from week to week so I know she genuinely doesn't have the money. Her dm was divorced from df so no financial help there and she has no brothers or sisters.

I do not want to interfere but she is in a dreadful state not knowing where to turn. Her dm lived in rented accommodation and there will be nothing in the estate or her bank to cover any funeral costs.

I know that people on certain benefits can get a basic funeral paid for.
Has anybody any experience of this and how much it would be just so that I can help her with some basic facts?

My understanding is that if the person who has passed was receiving benefits and the family paying for the funeral are also on benefits you can try to claim through DWP - however, it's not going to be enough to cover the cost of the funeral. To save money, buy the coffin online - we did that, print your own orders of service - we did that as well. We didn't have him embalmed through choice, not money but that's a saving. We avoided 400 on each funeral car by having friends help us with driving us so we could still be emotional and in the moment. I think it was around 1.5K you could claim, ish. My Dad's cremation came out at 3.5K. Hope this is useful. So sorry for your friend. It's awful to experience such a sad time and have money worries as well. We used comparethecoffin.com for our coffin. Get organised and order asap so you don't have to worry about it.

This may help:

www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/help-paying-for-a-funeral

Dwp will do a funeral grant . It is the person taking responsibility for the funeral who needs to be on certain benefits like income support or jsa or esa. It's unlikely to be awarded if just on tax credit top ups.

I thought that in cases like these (no money in the estate, no family willing or able to pay) that the state pays for the funeral service? I attended one when a patient of mine died and was NC with his family. It was a proper service with a hearse and under takers, exactly as any other funeral.

Hello.
If your friend is on certain benefits and is the one organising the funeral she may be eligible for the Funeral Payment from DWP. Its only £1500 so won't cover a basic funeral but it will help.

I hate to sound brutal but your friend needs to consider cremation rather than burial. Burial is very expensive.

She could contact Down To Earth. They are an organisation campaigning against funeral poverty and can help your friend budget for a meaningful but less expensive funeral.

Thank you for your suggestions.
She has indeed applied for the government grant but from what I can gather that still falls short of what is needed.
I just don't know what people do when they are finding it difficult to make their money last anyway and then have to find money for a funeral.
Will certainly make sure this doesn't happen to my dc and leave them as stressed and worried as my friend currently is.