Not on Benefits - No Money for Funeral?

Termit

Hi, My friend's mum has just died two weeks ago and he's got a ton of stress on him right now. He's still not registered the death which he's going to do tomorrow I think. There was incidents with the treatment in the hospital which he was delaying it for as well.

He's not on any benefits, has been sole carer for his mum for years, doesn't have any income or savings, and is now wondering what he does in regards to his mum's funeral if you have no money in this situation?

Thank you for reading.

Yorkshireman99

Termit wrote: »

Hi, My friend's mum has just died two weeks ago and he's got a ton of stress on him right now. He's still not registered the death which he's going to do tomorrow I think. There was incidents with the treatment in the hospital which he was delaying it for as well.

He's not on any benefits, has been sole carer for his mum for years, doesn't have any income or savings, and is now wondering what he does in regards to his mum's funeral if you have no money in this situation?

Thank you for reading.

The local authority have to pay. He just needs to tell them. If she died in hospital they have to pay. That is assuming she had no money. He has no legal obligation to pay.

TBagpuss

Did his mum have any money or assets?If so, those can be used to cover the cost of the funeral (and in some cases, it's possible to arrange for a bank to pay the funeral director directly, so you don't need to wait for probate)
If she had not assets then he can ask the council to make the arrangements. The funeral will, in those cases, be low key but still perfectly respectful, he will be able to attend although won't necessarily have much say in the date or time it takes place.

Termit

Thank you both for your helpful replies. I don't think she had anything no. I have let him know what you both said so thank you :-)

Silvertabby

Yorkshireman and Bagpuss are correct - but you may want to tell your friend that he won't be able to put a headstone on his mum's grave (assuming he opts for burial).

A friend who worked for a funeral director tells me that the main sticking point with public health funerals (apart from the horrible name) was not being able to mark the grave in some way.