Can funeral costs be paid before any other debt?

donnap83

McKneff wrote: »

To be honest, I cant believe your moaning about paying for your father's funeral, even if you arent liable.
He was your father !!!!!!, I wonder how many hours he worked hard to earn money to bring up you and your brother up through all the years.

Why should the tax payer pay the bill.

I would sell my soul and my house and give it away if I could just have 5 mintues with my dad.

Must be high up there on that perch.

churchrat

McKneff wrote: »

To be honest, I cant believe your moaning about paying for your father's funeral, even if you arent liable.
He was your father !!!!!!, I wonder how many hours he worked hard to earn money to bring up you and your brother up through all the years.

Why should the tax payer pay the bill.

I would sell my soul and my house and give it away if I could just have 5 mintues with my dad.

Well, I am glad that you had such a good relationship with your father, and that he sounds like a good man. Many of us were not as lucky. My father never paid a penny in care for any of his children, was hardly ever there and took everything he could. He had lots of other loveable habits but I will not bore you with them. I hated him, but dearly loved my aunt, his sister. For all his faults she still loved him. For her sake I went to the hospital when he was dying and ended up being the "next of kin". I could have refused at the time, but was too concerned with my aunt to pay much attention.

anyway, after this horrible man died the hospital said that I was responsible for the funeral costs, (to come out of his very small estate of about £1500) and if I could not afford it I should get a loan/grant etc to pay. The LA also said that he owed money in council tax and there was back rent as well.

I refused to pay any of it. I hated him, didn't see why I should pay. You are quite right, I don't see why anyone else should pay either, but it certainly wasn't going to be me. In the end the local hospital paid. I think it came to about £650 in total. There was a service at the local crem which I attended because my aunt wanted to go. It was nice actually, made me wish that I had had a father like yours McKneff, someone who I would have wanted to spend 5 mins with. But I didn't. I didn't owe him anything, and that is really sad.

I have no idea what sort of relationship the op had with their father, but I would not presume to think it was like mine or yours.

OP--you do NOT have to pay. If you want I will tell you what I did, post back and let me know.

System

McKneff wrote: »

To be honest, I cant believe your moaning about paying for your father's funeral, even if you arent liable.
He was your father !!!!!!, I wonder how many hours he worked hard to earn money to bring up you and your brother up through all the years.

Why should the tax payer pay the bill.

I would sell my soul and my house and give it away if I could just have 5 mintues with my dad.

What you would, or did, do McKneff is irrelevant, the question was whether the funeral costs can be paid from the estate BEFORE any other debts...that IS the case.

It is not a case of the tax payer footing the bill...that is only the case if someone has left no savings which may cover it, and if the N.o.k (or other) are not able to meet the cost themselves.

Ames

skylight wrote: »

Normally yes. Taxes and funeral expenses are paid from the estate first, then debts are paid from the estate after that and whats left is divided as per the will/intestancy rules. If there is no estate left though, then the debts are not payable by anyone (unless of course, they were joint in the first place).

Chat to CAB about it and call the local authority and tell them that there is no money in his estate to pay the bill (do not at all mention the bank account), asking what the process is next. You are not liable for this bill.

There is a funeral grant benefit. Would you or your brother be eligable to claim this?

The grant is only payable to a spouse. There is a loan from the DWP if the person responsible for paying for the funeral is on benefits, but it has to be repaid.

System

"If you are a close relative, family member or a friend of the person who has died, you may be able to get a funeral payment, but it will depend whether there are other relatives alive who are not on benefit. If there is someone closer or equally close to the person who has died who is not on benefit, you cannot usually get a funeral payment. In this situation, the Jobcentre Plus office will also consider whether it is reasonable for you to accept responsibility for the funeral expenses. They will look at how well you knew the dead person."

"A funeral payment is a payment to help people on a low income with the essential costs of a funeral. You must show that you have met these expenses. You do not have to repay a funeral payment, although it can be recovered from the estate of the person who has died."

weivel

I found this on the CAB online advice guide:

"the cost of the funeral will normally be met out of any money left by the person who had died and, where money has been left, the funeral bill should be paid before any other bills or debts. Even if the person's bank account has been frozen following the death it may be possible to have funds released from a building society or national savings account on showing the death certificate.
Some people do not leave enough money to pay for even a simple funeral. If this happens, the person arranging the funeral will have to pay for it, although other relatives or friends may be willing to contribute. There is no general death grant, but if you are in this situation and you receive a means-tested social security benefit (such as income support) you may be able to get a payment from the social fund (known as a funeral payment) to cover the cost of a simple funeral. Even where a funeral payment is made, it may not cover the full cost of the funeral and you may still have to pay the difference."

neverdespairgirl

McKneff wrote: »

To be honest, I cant believe your moaning about paying for your father's funeral, even if you arent liable.



I would sell my soul and my house and give it away if I could just have 5 mintues with my dad.

So? giving up property to see someone alive isn't remotely the same as burying them!

Funerals and burials aren't important to some people.

Dizz

McKneff

Firstly, I haven't "moaned" about it - I simply asked a question and want some advice.

Secondly, not that it's any of your business really, but I lost my mother earlier this year too after a long battle with cancer. Her and my Dad's illnesses were a great strain both financially and emotionally for my brother, we had to deal with them both at the same time. Hence we don't have a lot of money right now.

Thirdly, you know nothing about the relationship I had with my Dad, as some other posters up here mentioned - just because your Dad was obviously there for you; doesn't mean mine was. What Churchrat says in the posting above rings true for me on some levels.

Fourthly - the Local Authority treated my Dad pretty badly and if it wasn't for our intervention at times, God knows what would have happened to him.

I found your posting quite offensive. Perhaps you should take time to think about individual's situations before you make comments like that.

Pollycat

Gavin83 wrote: »

It will likely be the contribution he should have made while in the home which is payable regardless of the savings. However the funeral costs will come out first as already mentioned by the majority.

Is this true?

I only ask as I've got some literature about paying for care home fees and it doesn't say that even if your savings are less than £14250 you will still have to pay (other than taking your benefits as I mentioned in my post #9).

Dizz

Pollycat - the reason for the bill is that my Dad had a private pension and that was taken into account when assessing his contribution for care. He had no other savings or belongings. They Local Authority retrospectively as they had taken some time to get around to doing the assessement, hence the big bill of £3k. Hope that makes sense.