desperatly need help with funding dads funeral!!!

McKneff

Im sorry for your loss and you have had some good advice on here, perhaps its a lesson we should all learn and think about whether we are leaving the wherewithall for our own funerals or are we going to leave the same mess for our children for them to sort out and worry about the same as youre having to do.

hyltonlad

hi sorry to here of your sad loss following on from the legion if he was in the armed forces SSAFA might help http://www.ssafa.org.uk/
hyltonlad

SpiralingDown

sorry for your loss, i too am going through this at the moment, my husband died on friday night. He was the only one working and therefore i have no money for the funeral. My aunt has been invaluable as she was in the same situation 5 years ago so sorted me out with advice, i don't know about anywhere else but in Northern Ireland the is a berievement grant worth up to £2000 tax free and doesn't affect other benefits.
Most funeral directors will provide you with an estimate that the benefits office may take into account and if the funeral people state in writing the deposit is required they may also issue this payment straight to them.
What i would advise you to do is place notices in paper, organise flowers and other things yourself as you will be charged an admin fee for them doing each part which could add hundreds of pounds to your bill.
Also phone round to see which ones don't need a deposit, also don't go out expense on cars if you have people who can drive you themselves. If you do need cars just use one for imediate family only as sometimes people order more and the car isn't needed

McKneff

What i would advise you to do is place notices in paper, organise flowers and other things yourself as you will be charged an admin fee for them doing each part which could add hundreds of pounds to your bill.

You dont need to put notices in the paper, talk about this to the funeral directors, cut out any costs that are not needed.

CountryGuy

You could donate his body to research?

DX2

CountryGuy wrote: »

You could donate his body to research?

Sensitive as always Andy.

CountryGuy

DX2 wrote: »

Sensitive as always Andy.

Nothing insensitive at all. Not enough body's are left for research.

Who's Andy?

rodeo

Thanks everyone for your kind words and advice my dad was in the army some 40 plus years ago so thought I would try both british legion and ssafa the amounts quoted in my original post dont account for flowers or obituries and only 1 car Im trying to stick to the very basics and as some of you have said the deposit is all about the money the funeral directors have to pay out to 3rd parties so it makes sense to need that upfront its just not helpful at all. It seems to be that the DSS payment doesnt cover all the amount of a funeral either which again is a worry as I cannot pay the shortfall out of £75 a week, this is an incredibly ridiculous situation to be in at such a time as the last thing I actually want to do is ring around begging for money but looks like I have no choice and will have a nice big mobile bill too next month as proof

beverleyhills

Please accept my condolences on your loss. Some thoughts on where you might look for help. What was his employment? Did they have a welfare section. Was he a member of a Union?

-BA-

Sorry for your loss rodeo. I lost my day last August and we were in a similar position. We used an independent funeral service (a rare thing these days) and they were superb in helping us to work through different funding sources. Your first port of call should definitely be your local JCP Social Fund office and ask for the necessary forms for funeral payment assistance. It is worth noting that when me and my mum went to get the death certs. from the local Register office at the town hall, they had the forms there and also offered some advice. Our next phone call was to SSAFA and my dad had only done National Service although he had done a lot of charitable work for the RBL over the years. SSAFA approached the regiments he served in and also the hospitality industry as he had a pub tenancy for 30 yrs. Between the two, they made up the remaind of our £2k bill after DWP contributed c. £1400.

It's really really hard stuff to get your head around but it could be that a crisis loan will fund the deposit and then get taken out of the final award for funeral payment.