I can’t afford to pay for a funeral. What can I do?

[Wasabiwasp]

purposely being vague so not to be outing.

Very close relative passed away last week. Unexpectedly. They don’t have life insurance, assets, property or savings. They claimed benefits but that’s it.

nobody in the family has enough money to pay for a funeral (we aren’t on benefits so don’t qualify for the government help). We all have basically nothing to put towards a funeral.

Without getting into debt for it, is there anything we can do? What happens when a funeral can’t be funded?

There is what is called a Public Health Funeral there are details on gov.uk https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/public-health-funerals-good-practice-guidance/public-health-funerals-good-practice-guidance

Sorry for your loss.

You could just do nothing and the Local Authority will bury them as above.

Where is the body now?

There is a charity called Down To Earth that can support you and offer you advice: https://quakersocialaction.org.uk/we-can-help/helping-funerals/down-earth

I paid for my Mum's a few years ago, it cost me £1k. Can you all manage that between you? It was essentially direct cremation, but we paid a little extra for a 15 minute slot in the crem to play a few tunes and look at the coffin/say goodbye. No actual service, but we did get to be there and they us play some music.
Otherwise, direct cremation should be around £1k or just under and have a separate 'goodbye' thing yourselves at home/pub.

There are various good suggestions at this link below including government schemes like Funeral expenses payments, various charities that can help and even ideas like Justgiving/gofundme which can help if you get a bit of local/social media traction.

https://www.sunlife.co.uk/articles-guides/funeral-planning/help-with-funeral-costs/

Dont rule out a fundraiser. People often have an impact on others lives beyond those that they know - the cheerful postman, the kind customer, the elderly gentleman who always bought his paper at the local shop - all make a tiny difference to your life/my life and you may be surprised at the breadth of people who are willing to donate to a funeral even if they only knew someone very much in passing.

Just do a cheap cremation. I think the council do paupers funerals for people with no money at all.