Help, extra cheap funeral needed

Tightie

Hi charliecarrie I doubt if you can donate a body of someone who has already died, but I have signed my body over to medical research. I hope that I have a few long years of life left yet, but hopefully I will never have a funeral and I just end up in a deep freeze or a jar of formaldehyde being looked at sometimes by trainee doctors. And if this works out, even the collection of my body is free. See this is good advice and this site is living up to the name of MoneySaving.Com.

suki1964

Tightie wrote: »

Hi charliecarrie I doubt if you can donate a body of someone who has already died, but I have signed my body over to medical research. I hope that I have a few long years of life left yet, but hopefully I will never have a funeral and I just end up in a deep freeze or a jar of formaldehyde being looked at sometimes by trainee doctors. And if this works out, even the collection of my body is free. See this is good advice and this site is living up to the name of MoneySaving.Com.

Each medical school is different and some schools will ask for costs for transporting your body to them.

Once they have finished with you - you will be cremated - or returned to the family for burial

tinyteen

charliecarrie wrote: »

Help please! I'm trying to arrange a funeral for my dad but I simply cant afford it. I'm a on a very low income, I can barely afford to pay my mortage and have no savings, but DWP wont help with funeral costs as I'm not on benefits. I have a cost of funeral of £3000 and tomorrow I'm going to have to a shop around but i cant even afford £2000 so i m now considering organising it myself...Any advice please?

Hi Charliecarrie
I hope that you managed to organise everything o.k.
I am in the middle of arranging my brother's funeral - he was only 45 and died very suddenly last week. He has had mental health problems for years and we have many well meaning people telling us as he was on benefits we would be entitled to help. I have read so much that I don't think this is possible. I will try through my mother who is in a home but I think as both myself and my brother are employed, we won't have any luck. Whilst both of us did not have regular contact with him, we could and would not leave arranging the funeral to the state and refuse to do anything about it.
We had a similar think with my MIL happen last year so as that was an expensive lesson, I have sorted my own mother out but I really did not expect my brother to die. I will certainly be reading all the advice and tips on the site and will be knocking on the doors of all surviving relative to make sure everything is planned for.

seabright

noelphobic wrote: »

The OP's dad died in hospital. Woking's website say they arrange a 'pauper's funeral' only if the person didn't die in hospital. If they did die in hospital then:-

This only applies where the death took place within the Woking Borough and not within a hospital. If the death occurs in a hospital, an application must be made to the hospital.

I don't understand what difference it makes or whether the same would be true of every council, but it needs to be noted.

There are no major hospitals in Woking (just a walk-in centre), so if you died in hospital, you (almost certainly) didn't die in Woking, even if you lived there.

mandragora_2

As suggested earlier, is there any military connection at all - was he ever in the armed forces, no matter even if it was just for a short period, or was he the child of someone who was? Their benevolent funds are very good and at local level, can be very flexible - this page might be a good starting place:
http://www.turn2us.org.uk/charities/s/ssafa_forces_help.aspx

If not, was he in a a union? Or worked for a company or organisation that might have a benevolent fund, or even just a sympathetic director? Is there a local charity or board of trustees in your area - local solicitors charitable funds often exist, often at a local level, and are often untapped. How about an appeal in the local press highlighting the hardship, and linking it to the issues highlighted in the Telegraph story?

Whereabouts in the country are you? Someone here may know if the local Lions club, Round table or Rotary might help.

floss2

Charis wrote: »

I'm afraid this is no longer the case. Councils rely on the government's Social Fund and the grounds for receiving assistance are very strict.......

Not always true. My employers conduct approximately 30-40 public health funerals per year, financed by the Public Health team, although I do not know where their funding comes from, probably through DCLG or DoH. We provide a list of these funerals regularly to enquirers such as Fraser Fraser who investigate any estates that appear on the bona vacante list and in fact this list will be going onto the public website shortly. A public health funeral will generally be a short service & cremation with the ashes scattered, lead by a minister according to their religion (if known) and a member of the bereavment service team in attendance along with any other family / friends, unless the deceased's wishes are different and known.

j9faulk

Can I ask which organisation you work for that has arranged all these funerals? My father in law has just passed away and we are in the process of sorting out his funeral. We had no idea that we would have to foot the bill and seriously cannot afford it at the moment as we have no savings and one of our cars has just gone into the garage to be fixed so that my husband can get to work. My father-in-law had no money and indeed had racked up quite a bit of debt which we did not know about :eek:My husband I believe is executor of his will, although he did change it recently so this might have changed, but we do not receive any qualifying benefits. We are further compounded by the fact that my husbands job is under threat and there is a real possibility that he could be made redundant in the not too distant future. If there is anything you or anyone else on this forum can suggest I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you.

getmore4less

j9faulk wrote: »

Can I ask which organisation you work for that has arranged all these funerals? My father in law has just passed away and we are in the process of sorting out his funeral. We had no idea that we would have to foot the bill and seriously cannot afford it at the moment as we have no savings and one of our cars has just gone into the garage to be fixed so that my husband can get to work. My father-in-law had no money and indeed had racked up quite a bit of debt which we did not know about :eek:My husband I believe is executor of his will, although he did change it recently so this might have changed, but we do not receive any qualifying benefits. We are further compounded by the fact that my husbands job is under threat and there is a real possibility that he could be made redundant in the not too distant future. If there is anything you or anyone else on this forum can suggest I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you.

You do not have to do anything, even if he is still the executor.

If the estate is insolvent and you cannot afford it do not instruct funeral directors or get involved with the estate.

if you want to discuss other issues further best to start a new thread

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=217

McKneff

If he went to the trouble of making a will, surely he must have some estate to put in the will.

Otherwise what is the point of a will......

daska

Because you could develop dementia and inherit something that you might prefer goes to someone you like rather than your estranged spouse?