Help with funeral cost?

margaretclare

Janepig wrote: »

I'm surprised it's only £300 - what about the newspaper notice (I'm sure they cost about £70/£80), funeral directors fees, cost of the coffin, printed order of service at the crem, cars, etc....

Much of this is not necessary. You don't HAVE to have printed order of service, newspaper, cars. In my experience one of the most expensive items on a funeral director's bill are the large black limousines. I have had to organise funerals and I've never included limousines, people can use their own cars. Neither have I ever included a printed order of service, in fact I didn't even do one for my own wedding!!!

Oh, and are you sure he didn't leave any money? It's my understanding that people who are in a nursing home have their pension kept safe for them which they can then use as "pocket money" so to speak. What has happened to this money of his if this was the case?

The amount which is kept out of the pension money is meant for small expenses, pocket money as you rightly say, but is unlikely to add up to the cost of a funeral.

Despite the fact that he was in a home, I'm surprised your NIL was so naive as to think she wouldn't have to pay for his funeral, considering she's the next of kin!

Yes, I agree. When someone dies, someone has gotta pay for their final disposal. The home that he was in doesn't pay for it.

It's possibly worth asking if he had any links with a charitable organisation before he fell victim to Alzheimer's. Was he an ex-serviceman - the Royal British Legion springs to mind.

Just a thought.

Margaret

karjam

You can get the council to pay for the funeral but it seems to take a while to arrange.

My gran died last year and had also been in a care home. We are also on a low income but now low enough to receive benefits. We contacted the council but they weren't very friendly or helpful and after a few days of them not having even started proceedings we decided to pay for it ourselves even though we couldn't really afford it (robbed peter to pay paul kind of thing).

The funeral ended up costing us £1300 and this was the cheapest way of doing it.

Oldernotwiser

You might find the final paragraph on this site useful, as well as all the other information.

http://www.funeraldirector.com/arranging.htm