Paying for funeral

[familydilema]

My mum died on Tuesday and I wondering if the bank or building society with her accounts can pay the funeral directors directly rather than the family paying and then getting the money back later once her estate has been settled. My sister has mainly been dealing with mums finances and is executor of her will

Do you know if you're entitled to any funeral benefits from the DWP?

You can claim if you get UC etc.

I'm not on benefits but don't really have much spare cash and funerals are eye wateringly expensive. Just thought lots of people must face this

Have you discussed this with the funeral director?
They may be able to help.

Funeral costs are one of 3 things banks will release money for.

Just take the death certificate and funer invoice, and they will write a cheque. Might also be useful to take ID for yourself too.

Sorry for your loss

Providing she has money in her accounts, the bank will pay the funeral bill. It’s very normal and they are used to doing it. Just be prepared that it might take longer than expected, after DF died I was in branch causing a queue for about 1/2 hour as they filled in forms very slowly and then wrote a cheque for me to give funeral director.

Go to her bank and let them know she has passed. Take the death certificate and ID with you and bank statements. When you speak with the funeral director let them know that the bank will be paying the bill and issue you with an invoice. We used the Coop for dm funeral and they asked for 50% up front. If there’s a small amount in her account they usually just give you the money and close the account. My dm had £3k in Halifax and that paid for part of the funeral. Then the final bill came and I gave it to Barclays to pay the remainder.

Thank you so much for your replies .. you've all been so helpful

What are the other two?

Banks allow you to take the invoice from the funeral director and a death cert and pay for the funeral using the deceaseds bank account (assuming they have enough)

With noting that funeral costs are limited and don’t include the wake etc.

That’s not true. The bank will pay out any reasonable funeral expense. They paid out for the hire of the room, buffet, funeral flowers and all associated undertaker costs. They would have also paid for her headstone had we wanted a new one.
OP, the Undertaker will give you an invoice to take to the bank and the bank will pay them directly - just send them the invoices for all the other things directly.,

Sorry for your loss I work for a high street bank and we pay funeral costs from the late customers account directly to the funeral directors upon receipt of death certificate ID and original invoice from the funeral directors.

We are also permitted to pay out for any other associated costs such as flowers /wake if we have invoices to pay direct or if the next of kin or executor has already paid we can reimburse them but need to see proof of payment and receipts.

Although the funeral director I was dealing with said that if the wake was arranged through them it could be added to the invoice

Will building societies pay, or is it just banks?

😮
The deceased pays for their own funeral flowers?

Well they aren't going to spend it anywhere else are they.

No, they're not but it seems wrong that the payment comes from their bank account.
The flowers are usually from The Family aren't they?

What difference does it make, the money usually goes to the family

Flowers on top of the coffin are often part of the Funeral Directors package. That's all we have had at recent funerals at deceased request. It effectively just reduces the estate so whoever is inheriting effectively pays the bill from money they haven't yet received and may not for some time.

The flowers are labelled as coming from family - where do you think the deceased's bank accounts contents end up.
Btw what else can be paid from the deceased's bank account before the probate is through?

Btw what else can be paid from the deceased's bank account before the probate is through

When my DP passed away 8 years ago, their bank released all their money to me (will executor) without probate as the amount was less than £10k (a lot less).
Things may have changed since then.

I hear what you're all saying but still don't agree.
What if the estate hasn't been left to the family but the local dog's home?

At the point of arranging the funeral, the estate hasn't even been distributed, so the money isn't the beneficiaries' at that time.

It’s not the beneficiaries but that doesn’t matter. They will use the deceaseds account to pay for their funeral and anything left will go to the local dogs home.

Funeral related expenses and probate fees are the only things than can be paid from deceased bank accounts before closure.
I work for Lloyds and probate only needed for balances £50k and above otherwise just death cert and ID needed .

Well I'll have to put a clause in my Will that they buy their own flowers then, before my estate is distributed to the Dog's home. 😆