Assistance with Funeral Costs

MT01

Sadly my mother passed away today and I have taken it upon myself to arrange her funeral.

She was living in a care centre following an accident that left her severely mentally and physically disabled requiring 24 hour care. The local health authority had been funding her care whilst she was in the care centre.

Having never had to deal with something like this before I have looked into the costs and a basic funeral is £1,800 approx.

Although I earn a reasonable wage and am not receiving any benefits or financial assistance from the state, unfortunately I am heavily in debt and once my wage has gone in my bank and my rent, the most basic living costs and direct debits have gone out I'm left with £100 or so. I do not have any savings at all so I have no idea how to pay for the funeral. My credit rating is terrible and with the mountain of debt I'm already in (although slowly but surely paying it off) I don't know if I would even be able to take a loan out for the cost.

There is no estate left to pay for the funeral, my mother does not own any property, she lived prior to the accident in a housing association flat with my step-father.
He (my step-father) is in a similar situation in that what he earns just about cover his basic living costs (he does not claim benefits or state support) and he too has a very poor credit rating.

From what research I've done it appears that you must be on state support to qualify for assistance with funeral costs. Is this correct?

Can anyone advise if my mother's disability and the fact that her care was being funded would enable us to get some assistance in the matter?

It hard enough just coping with the death of my mother without the thought of an invoice for £1800 that has to be paid within 30 days that we have no way of finding.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

MrsMW

I'm sorry I can't answer your question but I didn't want to ignore you. Please accept my condolences on your sad loss. It must be difficult enough without having to worry about paying for the funeral. Take care.

littlemissmoney

This might be useful...

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/advisers/claimforms/sf200_print.pdf

Paparika

Big hugs to you with your sad loss.

Is there any other family members that can help?

I thought there was a social fund of some sorts that the benefits agency may be able to help with, although i am not sure.

Someone will post soon with more accurate information.

Doodles

Hi MT01
So so sorry to hear about mum, I lost my mum in almost the same circumstances 2half years ago and can understand the turmoil you're going through.

Although I work full-time I did manage to get a very small amount in the form of a social fund funeral grant, but at that time was receiving child tax credit which meant I was eligible. Don't know if the rules have changed. I suggest you take a look at the DWP website.

But I do understand your frustration, even a basic funeral (burial) in my area was expensive, and my mum had no savings to her name, which meant although I was a working, struggling, single mum I was still left to find about £2.5K after the small amount of funeral grant. It took me ages to pay off that funeral and even then I had to fork out more a year down the line to pay for a gravestone. So I really do sympathise.

Although I hate to say it, I don't think there is any help available to you other than the funeral grant, I'm sorry. But I hope I'm wrong and someone on this forum with more knowledge might be able to steer you in a better direction.

I did find though that the funeral directors did not expect full payment straight away, I would explain to them your situation and see if you could pay over several months or something like that. I found them very understanding of my situation.

Big hugs to you.

Sut

Your step father would need to claim the funeral payment, as he was her partner prior to her going into care and therefore the state would not accept a claim from anyone other than a surviving partner. He would need to be recieving ONE of the following:

Housing Benefit
Council Tax benefit
Income Support
Income based Jobseekers Allowance
Pension Credit
Working Tax Credit WITH a disability or severe disability element
Child tax credit AT A RATE higher than that of the family element.

Funeral Payments are made in regard to the benefits the person applying for the grant recieves, not what the person who has passed away recieved. Hope this helps.

jay11_2

Assuming he is over 50, Your step-father should be able to claim a one-off bereavement payment of around £2,000, and possibly widow(ers) pension for one year, provided your mum had NI payments credited to her.

littlemissmoney

jay11 wrote: »

Assuming he is over 50, Your step-father should be able to claim a one-off bereavement payment of around £2,000, and possibly widow(ers) pension for one year, provided your mum had NI payments credited to her.

More info:

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/BenefitsTaxCreditsAndOtherSupport/Bereaved/DG_10018703
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/BenefitsTaxCreditsAndOtherSupport/Bereaved/index.htm

MT01

Thanks for the advice, I will look in to it.

In the end the funeral directors were very accomodating regarding spreading the payment over installments and another family member paid for the disembursments (up-front costs for crematorium, minister and flowers) which as made the whole situation much easier.

Jummy

When my dad died in Dec my mum received £1000 towards dads funeral and she also got the bereavement payment of £2000.
Mum is 63 and in receipt of pension credit and HB.

nesssie1702

Your local Environmental Health department are responsible for arranging public burial and crematorium for the indigent dead (people who have died and where nobody is taking responsibility for making funeral arrangements or there is no funding available).