Funeral payments

sunnyone

I need a bit more than the directgov information about funeral payments.

A bit of background, an only child age 25 who is severely disabled and his only living parent will only last a day or so, he is in reciept of IBJSA with the appropriate premiums for his high rate of both componants of DLA, he has no savings and the father has no assets that we know of (and I understand that if we find any we will have to repay any funeral payments) how do the funeral payments work in practice and what do they cover in reality?

There will be a basic crematorium service with a basic family flower arrangment of the coffin (a basic coffin and the son will pay for the flowers), no cars as we will take the son with us in my wheelchair adapted vehicle and any one else can sort themselves out.

We have heard that most funeral directors wont accept funeral payments, is this true?

The son cant communicate verbally but he is mentally normal so he needs a hand with organising the funeral, I am also deaf so Im doing the info gathering part of helping him so thanks for reading and for any information.

GlasweJen

Sunny one, get in touch with the local CAB or social work department. Some funeral directors have "DSS" funeral packages so the grant will cover it all, someone somewhere will have a list of directors who do this (usually local o es, not chains).

clemmatis

The Co-op funeral department takes funeral payments, and they say so on their web page, they say they may even be able to advise

(I have no idea how good they are or how their charges compare with others)

http://www.co-operative.coop/funeralcare/arranging-a-funeral/your-guide-to-arranging-a-funeral/funeral-costs-and-payments/

sunnyone

GlasweJen wrote: »

Sunny one, get in touch with the local CAB or social work department. Some funeral directors have "DSS" funeral packages so the grant will cover it all, someone somewhere will have a list of directors who do this (usually local o es, not chains).

The lads social worker is always "out of the office and will call back" but he never contacts the lad, they set him up in a disability bungalow when his dad became terminal though the dad was on the transplant list.

The local CAB isnt accessible for me or the lad which is why I thought I would ask here, thank you for your help and have you heard anymore about your working tax?

You cant have had "the call" yet, you deserve a transplant the dad in question didnt, he drank at least a litre of spirts a day for all of his life from his early teens and he continued to do so while in terminal liver failure so a new liver would have been wasted on him.

sunnyone

clemmatis wrote: »

The Co-op funeral department takes funeral payments, and they say so on their web page, they say they may even be able to advise

(I have no idea how good they are or how their charges compare with others)

http://www.co-operative.coop/funeralcare/arranging-a-funeral/your-guide-to-arranging-a-funeral/funeral-costs-and-payments/

Its the local coop who refused to take a local wasters funeral on or thats what the family claim which was another reason I asked here.

My family use the coop for all their funerals (down to the old village and miners relationship with the old cooperative) and it would be convenent for anyone to visit the son and the chapel of rest.

GlasweJen

Do you have someone who can phone the local funeral directors for you? If one lot are refusing to do welfare funerals they should know who will accept them, someone has to bury/cremate them surely?

Not had the call yet, had a false alarm where the heart ended up going to someone else at the last minute, in future I'm demanding anaesthetic the minute i get tonthe hospital, once you're out there's no going back apparently.

Working tax credits are being horrendously unhelpful, can't say I'm surprised.

Oh actually, is the dad a member of the miners club? Ours does miners welfare, they help towards funerals for ex miners and give advice in our area but I'm not sure if that's because of the pit disaster or if it's a universal thing.

saving_pennies

Hi sunnyone,

Sorry to hear this sad news. I'm glad the son has your support.

Here is more inf with a section on what the funeral payment covers: http://www.dwp.gov.uk/publications/specialist-guides/technical-guidance/sb16-a-guide-to-the-social/funeral-payments/

Here is a page from CAB: http://www.citizensadvice.co.uk/en/publications/Briefing-Papers/DSD-Committee/DSD-Committee---Funeral-Payments/

Fishingtime

I work for a subsidury of the coop as an undertaker.
I think the funeral payment from the goverment is in the region of £2000 but I may be wrong.
A very basic funeral costs around £2300 with my firm,A local independent undertaker in the same town are £500 cheaper than we are
The reason why they may have refused to do the funeral is that when you arrange the funeral they want the disbursments which add up to roughly £800

clemmatis

sunnyone wrote: »

Its the local coop who refused to take a local wasters funeral on or thats what the family claim which was another reason I asked here.

My family use the coop for all their funerals (down to the old village and miners relationship with the old cooperative) and it would be convenent for anyone to visit the son and the chapel of rest.

I see. Their web page definitely says they do but I have a feeling local co-ops are pretty independent.

My family always shopped at the co-op, because of the old co-op tradition. But I thought of them for this because I'm on their member survey panel, and they've been going on and on about their funerals being ethical. (So I told them the ethical thing to do was treat the bereaved well and have low prices and not ask for payment in advance... now I've heard your story, I think I'll say it all again and ask about funeral payments. Not that I have any power.)

Sorry about that. Really. But as it looks -- from yoxford's reply -- as though they're more expensive anyway, it may not matter that much.

sunnyone

GlasweJen wrote: »

Do you have someone who can phone the local funeral directors for you? If one lot are refusing to do welfare funerals they should know who will accept them, someone has to bury/cremate them surely?

Not had the call yet, had a false alarm where the heart ended up going to someone else at the last minute, in future I'm demanding anaesthetic the minute i get tonthe hospital, once you're out there's no going back apparently.

Working tax credits are being horrendously unhelpful, can't say I'm surprised.

Oh actually, is the dad a member of the miners club? Ours does miners welfare, they help towards funerals for ex miners and give advice in our area but I'm not sure if that's because of the pit disaster or if it's a universal thing.

I hope you are suitable next time pet, if getting the anaesthetic helps you be the one then go for it but we both know how dangerous it will be for you.

My granda was the last miner in the family and the coop went profit driven long before that.

I can get someone to ring around but I really wanted to help him, he is so innocent and his situation breaks my heart.

sunnyone

Thank you GlasweJen, clemmatis, saving_pennies and yoxford2008 so much for you help with this, I want to help the lad so much and its a difficult for me to find the information I need for this online.