bridgehead ablaze: Funeral poverty campaigners urge ministers to boost cash help ...

Monday, December 3, 2012

Funeral poverty campaigners urge ministers to boost cash help ...

This article titled ?Funeral poverty campaigners urge ministers to boost cash help? was written by Tracy McVeigh, for The Observer on Saturday 1st December 2012 18.55 UTC

A rise in the number of people facing funeral poverty, alongside an increase in the number of paupers? funerals, where the local authority has to foot the bill, have led to calls for the government to ?face up to death?.

Campaigners want a revamp of what they claim is an outdated and confusing system set up to help poorer families who find themselves meeting the unexpected cost of a funeral.

The cost of dying has risen by more than 70% since 2004, to an average of ?2, 700 for a standard funeral, but the government?s funeral payment has not been altered since 2003. The average total award, for those on low incomes, is under ?1,200 with almost half of the claims being rejected. This, said Joan Walley, MP for Stoke-on-Trent North, according to the government?s own reckoning, is put down to applicants being confused about who can apply, what the payment will cover and how long it will take to be processed.

Last week she held a round table of ?end of life? experts at Westminster after a report by Bath University highlighted the distress vulnerable families suffer when they are facing high funeral costs.

?I have been hearing from my constituents stories about being forced into debt by funeral costs,? Walley said. ?It?s a stressful time anyway and it really matters to people that their loved ones have a good send-off but the costs are frightening, especially if the death was unexpected. One of the other things that is happening is that people might have had no relationship with a family member but are then seen as their next of kin. Everyone recognises we?re in a time of austerity and we?re not a society which talks about death but we have to come up with a plan that a death doesn?t mean financial death for a whole family.?

The Local Government Association has reported a year-on-year rise in the number of ?public health funerals?, the ?pauper?s funeral?, where the dead person has no next of kin or relatives refuse to pay. Local authorities in England and Wales had to pay for almost 3,000 last year, and although it is legal to sell the possessions of the dead to try to recoup some of the money, often it?s not possible. In some cases older people who have put money aside for their own funerals have had to use all their savings on care.

Cllr David Rogers, of the LGA, said the figures speak for themselves. ?Each public health funeral will have its own sorry story attached, be it about a homeless person who died alone and unknown in the street or an isolated pensioner long forgotten by family and friends who passes away in their armchair.

?Providing a funeral to give people the respect and dignity that perhaps they didn?t enjoy in life is a service that people in need can rely on their council for. But often the deceased was well known and well loved, but their family have fallen on hard times and are struggling financially. The last thing a grieving relative needs is extra stress over whether they?re going to be able to pay for and organise the funeral of their loved one.?

He said the grant was ?outdated, complex and confusing? and prevented people getting the support they?re entitled to.

Dr Kate Woodthorpe, from Bath University?s Centre for Death & Society, says that by 2030 there will be an extra 100,000 people dying a year.

?The death rate is due to start rising in 2012 and peak in 2030. We have an opportunity now, while the death rate is relatively low, to put into place systems and support for the relatives of people after they have gone. The cost of funerals has been rising year on year.

?I know that death is not a vote winner but we have to address funding services. A problem is that there?s a lot of pressure on people to provide a dignified send-off, a funeral is a very public marker of a person?s life, and for a family with money worries it?s a huge stress.?

Dr Woodthorpe has been working with Simon Cox, an insurance expert on dying costs with Sun Life Direct, on a study about attitudes and expectations towards old age and dying.

?People are living longer and often need care for longer,? she said. ?For those that have assets, to fund care many sell their home, meaning that the next generation inherit a small amount. In other words, they will have to pay for the cost of the funeral.?

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