Preparedness for when

GreyQueen

I think that some houses are already unsaleable, or not going to sell at anything like the price for which they were purchased, or what they would have been worth prior to flooding.

I often find it a profound thought that there is a big chunk of Europe, formerly inhabited in the stone age, which is now under the North Atlantic (off Spain and Portugal) or under our own North Sea. People were living out there. Now its very under water. It messes with your head to think about it.

Sooo, rising sea levels could permanatly inundate low-lying areas, plus there is the issue of coastal erosion. How much is a £250,00 house worth with the cliff edge 5 feet from the back door? Nothing, I expect.

Perhaps the prudent person looking to buy a home, or other land, needs to be aware of the contour lines, the water courses, the underlying soil formation, to make the wisest decisions.

We have some fun and games in my city with old mine workings. As in mostly unmapped medieval and older ones. Subsidence is a regular problem, as is the sudden appearance of really quite big holes. Bad enough in the public highway, but summat turrible under your house.

fiftyeighter_2

My brother died 3 years ago. A long story but this is the shortened version.
He had no wife but 1 child of 16 whom he had not seen since child was 4.
We have 1 brother and including me 5 sisters. Some of these he had no contact with whatsoever. We are all pensioners. He did not have a funeral insurance.
I tried to get help from dwp to pay for the funeral. It was £3,200. I was refused and never really got a proper answer as to why. I do not have any savings neither do the rest of my family. I appealed and still refused.
I had to go cap in hand to local funeral director (co-op) who were absolutely fantastic. We had arrangements for my sister and I to pay the funeral costs at £100 per month. We have only recently finished paying. It's been extremely hard. In retrospect I should have gone to see citizens advice. But I didn't.
Well it's paid now and my sister and I have both felt better for paying for our dear brother.
The only thing I would say is please, please, please get a funeral insurance.
Being left with this has been so hard and we felt we didn't even really grieve because of the worry of the debt.

Mojisola

BigMummaF wrote: »

Let's hope both your mother & mine will get their royal 'telegram' Karma You have to 'order' the card well in advance, plus it ain't cheap; my great-aunt was lucky enough to reach the century & some cousins organised it for her.

When I arranged a 60th wedding anniversary card from the Queen for my parents, there wasn't any charge for it.

jk0

fiftyeighter wrote: »

My brother died 3 years ago. A long story but this is the shortened version.
He had no wife but 1 child of 16 whom he had not seen since child was 4.
We have 1 brother and including me 5 sisters. Some of these he had no contact with whatsoever. We are all pensioners. He did not have a funeral insurance.
I tried to get help from dwp to pay for the funeral. It was £3,200. I was refused and never really got a proper answer as to why. I do not have any savings neither do the rest of my family. I appealed and still refused.
I had to go cap in hand to local funeral director (co-op) who were absolutely fantastic. We had arrangements for my sister and I to pay the funeral costs at £100 per month. We have only recently finished paying. It's been extremely hard. In retrospect I should have gone to see citizens advice. But I didn't.
Well it's paid now and my sister and I have both felt better for paying for our dear brother.
The only thing I would say is please, please, please get a funeral insurance.
Being left with this has been so hard and we felt we didn't even really grieve because of the worry of the debt.

Sorry to hear about that. That must have been very hard for you.

I guess it at least lifts one burden from the family to know that they don't have to worry about funeral costs.

As I have the cash sitting around, my instinct is to pay the whole lot up front, and be done with it. However, in view of my worries about company solvency, I think I might go down the route of paying monthly. Then at least if the firm go bust in five years time, I won't have lost the full sum.

jk0

Mojisola wrote: »

When I arranged a 60th wedding anniversary card from the Queen for my parents, there wasn't any charge for it.

The cheeky b*stards charge for a card?

I might as well send one to myself.

DawnW

BigMummaF wrote: »

After Dad passed, we organised an Enduring Power of Attorney with Mum that was supposed to cover any eventualities. Now we are beginning to enter the realms of actually needing the blessed thing, TPTB have gone & changed the ruddy rules :mad: The bit we have got is still legal up to a point, but we can't get it upgraded because of 'reasonable doubt to the mental cognition capabilities', meaning Mum is not capable of making an informed decision because she is being investigated for memory impairment.
Considering the new paperwork is to give my sister & I the say so on what medical intervention to allow the medics to put Mum through, it all seems a bit
And she can't sign a Living Will either

Feeling for you Big Mumma F. My mum had dementia, and at some stage had destroyed the will that she had written so carefully when she was still capable. Not that she had much, but she had put a lot of thought into it iyswim. She hadn't done the power of attorney thing (she wouldn't while still ok, wasn't in her character) and when she got ill she wasn't able to. At least your mother did what was available at the time, which is better than nothing. Because she had not done anything along these lines, I had quite a hard time with a body called the court of protection, which together with social services were quite bureaucratic and made me feel like a potentially abusive and grasping relative at a very upsetting time. The odd thing was, her meagre resources were used up very quickly, and even though she really only had her state pension and I was mostly paying for her care etc, I still had to abide by this court's rulings and keep the records that they specified etc. I understand that some elders are taken advantage of, but she lived in a council flat and had only a small amount of savings. It seemed like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut, and she would probably have had better care without their input to be honest, as certainly in the initial period I was limited in the decisions I could make about her treatment and care

She did have a little policy that paid for her funeral though.

calicocat

I have it in my Will that my funeral is paid out of my estate, to be honest I thought that's what everyone did, I haven't heard of funeral insurance before this thread.

My mum has hers all sorted, right down to the service and which music.....as she doesn't want me picking the music.....lol.

Broomstick

I didn't pay anything for the 60th anniversary card I organised for my parents either.

This is what the website says http://www.royal.gov.uk/HMTheQueen/Queenandanniversarymessages/Frequentlyaskedquestions.aspx :
10. How much does it cost to arrange a message from Her Majesty?
No charge is made by Buckingham Palace to send a message of congratulations from The Queen. However, the General Register Office(s) may charge a small administration fee for the confirmation of marriage details.

B x

Perplexed_Pineapple

Evening all, have caught up with the thread at last. For me, and I've only had to do it once so far, I found the arrangement of the funeral to be part of the ritual surrounding the death, and I think rituals are important at difficult times. There weren't any particular worries about paying for it though as the deceased's estate was going to pay for it without any difficulties, and it allows you to "cut your cloth" according to the circumstances at the time. After all, no point planning for a big ceremony with all your family present if you survive them all and are the last to go, which I've known happen to a few people.
Anyhoo, on a less morbid note, if anyone has one of the big Maglite torches (as discussed a couple of times earlier in the thread) these spare bulbs are currently on a very good offer from Am3zon:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Maglite-Lwsa601-Cell-Krypton-Bulb/dp/B00007E7ZF
These aren't the super-bright LED bulbs (which I totally recommend if you are using the Maglite anyway) but good for a spare and I've got a couple. I don't think I would buy a Maglite now, there are more modern LED torches on the market for less, but if you have an old one knocking around as I do they are virtually indestructible and have a reassuring chunkiness (is that a word?) in your hand :rotfl:

[Deleted User]

BigMummaF wrote: »

I'm pretty certain that the family is still responsible for funeral costs even if you are an organ donor

That's assuming they accept responsibility.

The family can simply refuse to accept the body, and the Council (if you die at home) or the NHS (if you die in hospital) become responsible for a Public Health Funeral.

likewise if you have no immediate next of kin but there are cousins etc. so you may want to find that out for definite.

As above, if they all refuse to take responsibility, a Public Health Funeral will be provided.

Nobody can be compelled to pay for a funeral.