Who will pay for the funeral?

madbadrob

If someone dies with no savings and no relatives found the local council pay for the funeral and then make a claim against the estate. If intestate this will be done when TSoL carry out the administration of the estate.

rob

oliveoil99

madbadrob wrote: »

If someone dies with no savings and no relatives found the local council pay for the funeral and then make a claim against the estate. If intestate this will be done when TSoL carry out the administration of the estate.

rob

The immediate family are on benefits with no money and the rest of the family are not coming forward with any help so there are family but no-one will take responsibility.

Mojisola

oliveoil99 wrote: »

The immediate family are on benefits with no money and the rest of the family are not coming forward with any help so there are family but no-one will take responsibility.

Do any of the immediate family claim the benefits which would allow them to get help to pay for the funeral -
https://www.gov.uk/funeral-payments/overview

daska

the options are all in that thread I referred to, they are:
a. find the money from the estate
b. apply for a funeral payment if immediate family are in receipt of relevant benefits and meet the other rules and repay if required out of deceased's esate
c. refuse to deal with it and let the council/hospital recoup from the deceased's estate if there is one aka pauper's funeral.
d. beg and borrow to pay for it personally

Funeral directors can be reasonably lenient but whether they'd let you pay it in installments you can only find out by asking them directly. (They're used to waiting for probate/ for banks to release funds etc.)

madbadrob

daska wrote: »

the options are all in that thread I referred to, they are:

c. refuse to deal with it and let the council/hospital recoup from the deceased's estate if there is one aka pauper's funeral.

Just being pedantic here but there is no such thing as a paupers funeral. They are called Public funerals.

Rob

daska

Public Health Funerals to be really pedantic, but actually some councils still refer to them as pauper's funerals or welfare funerals.

madbadrob

daska wrote: »

Public Health Funerals to be really pedantic, but actually some councils still refer to them as pauper's funerals or welfare funerals.

Daska,

What local council refers to them as paupers funerals? This is a term that as never been used since the advent of civil registration and before then only by the church. Anyway thats getting away from the OP's post
Rob

daska

Rob,

Did you not try clicking the links I included in my post?

Daska

oliveoil99

daska wrote: »

Rob,

Did you not try clicking the links I included in my post?

Daska

They are getting a £1000 funeral payment, the rest has tobe found by the family.


In my memory I'm sure I watched a programme about funerals and they say there is a basic package for a funeral that is not mentioned by the funeral director you have to ask them about it, no cars, no flowers, no annoucements in the paper just the basics what you are legally required to do, might have a look into that myself.

annie-c

Olive, I was recently in the position of helping someone in the situation you are describing, until it came to light that the deceased family member had left an estate that would cover the funeral costs. It was an extremely difficult time and I sympathise with you.

The information that I found was that there are aspects of the system that are the same nationwide, and other aspects that differ regionally.

The issues that are the same nationally (well, actually, I can only speak for England and Wales) is that in the event that the deceased died with absolutely no estate, then the next of kin can apply for a Funeral Payment, which is a grant that will cover part, but not all of the costs of a basic funeral. The payment covers the costs of cremation fees and approx £700 towards a basic funeral (ie the collection and preparation of the body, coffin, transport of the coffin to the crematorium, disposal of the ashes, etc). Unfortunately, the most basic of funerals in the area I was looking came to £1100 plus cremation fees, leaving a shortfall of £400. (We found that "basic" or "simple" funerals were advertised and had their own webpage on several independent funeral directors' websites, and when we made enquiries, there was no attempt to hide this or charge us more than we wanted to pay). Eligibility for the Funeral Payment is dependent on the next-of-kin's financial income (or, if not the direct next of kin, someone who passes a set of criteria for being reasonably responsible for making the arrangements).

If there is no way that the family can meet the shortfall, then what happens next depends on local/individual circumstances. If the deceased ever served in the armed forces or belonged to any other organisation with a benevolent fund, they will sometimes be able to help. If the family is able to make a small deposit on the shortfall, some funeral directors will offer credit terms for repayment in installments.

If there is absolutely no-one able to take responsibility for payment/arrangements of the funeral, then it becomes the responsibility of the local authority to arrange a funeral under (I'm sorry this is so harsh) the Control of Diseases Act. It then depends on the local authority whether the funeral will be a private cremation, or whether the chapel of rest will be open to family and friends.

It is a horrible, horrible situation and in the case I was helping with, it was fortunate that there turned out to be an estate from which to pay the costs. I know this is an issue on which the CAB have been campaigning and I hope that the situation changes in future.