Funeral Service Times August 2017 June 2019 | Page 14

14 SOAPBOX
Grief and poverty; a dangerous
cocktail
With ‘funeral poverty’ becoming a staple phrase in the trade’s lexicon, Rowland Brothers’ Charles King
discusses how those in the sector can help mourners when cost is another thing weighing on their minds
C
onsider two facts. In the UK,
1,640 people die every day
– more than half a million
every year (Office for National
Statistics). In the UK, one in five people
- 22% of the population - officially live in
poverty (Joseph Rowntree Foundation).
That’s 328 people on the breadline dying
every day.
Logic suggests that if a person is living
in poverty, their next of kin probably are
too. So, every day in the UK more than
300 people without any savings and an
income inadequate to live on are faced with
a funeral bill of, on average, £4,267 for a
burial or £3,247 for a cremation. Often it is
much more.
A third fact; people who are grieving
suffer tremendous emotional pain.
Grieving is always difficult because
it involves many intense feelings. One
common consequence of grief is a feeling
of unreality, of being out of touch. Another
is feeling in the grip of mental instability.
People can find themselves forgetting
things and not being able to finish what they
started. Add to this the practical problem
of finding a large sum of money in a short
period of time, without savings and the
lowest possible credit rating, and the result
can be panic.
Consider the advice commonly given
to those who are grieving: take time, don’t
let others rush you into making major
decisions. That’s not good advice when
faced with a huge bill.
And so such people arrive in the office of
a funeral director. What does the company
do? Make the arrangements, encouraging
the person to be modest in their plans,
but insist at least a major part of the bill
is paid in advance? Tell the person to ask
the Citizen’s Advice Bureau for help raising
the money? Or regard this as a duty their
company should themselves take on?
Rowland Brothers, a fourth generation
family firm of funeral directors founded in
1873, based in Croydon with nine branches
carrying out 1,150 funerals a year, is one
of the latter. Their solution is to have a
member of staff dedicated to the role.
Sometimes help is available fairly easily.
If the person responsible for paying the
bill is receiving at least one qualifying
JUNE 2019
benefit they may be eligible for a Funeral
Payment from the Department for Work
and Pensions.
This won’t cover the whole funeral bill.
The applicant may still have to pay up to
a third of the cost, but it can pay for death
certificates; cremation fees, including the
cost of the doctor’s certificate; travel to
arrange or attend the funeral; the cost of
moving the body within the UK, if it’s being
moved more than 50 miles; burial fees and
up to £700 for other expenses, including
funeral director’s fees, flowers or the coffin.
There are also other bereavement
benefits available, such as bereavement
allowance. Advice is readily available
online, but grief can make coping with
this difficult for some people, especially
an elderly person used to relying on their
spouse. Here, the assistance of the funeral
company is invaluable.
However, it is sadly all too frequent
that someone with no money, and a small
income, doesn’t qualify for government
finance. Here a skilled member of the
funeral director’s team is worth their weight
in gold. Maybe they are aware of charities
or local trusts which might come up with
some of the money needed, or they might
– in suitable cases – link them up with a
trusted finance provider who will accept
the person’s poor or non-existent credit
rating and offer a loan at a reasonable rate.
Or perhaps the funeral director will be able
to accept payment in instalments.
But before that stage there are things
funeral directors with a social conscience,
and wise business acumen, can do. A
range of funeral packages can be offered
at different prices. Although the scope to
do this has narrowed in recent years – the
funeral director’s disbursements once
formed only 15% of the final bill, now
they are 70%, restricting the possibility of
providing a less expensive funeral – there
are still alternatives to be offered, such as
direct cremations.
So, the solution to the potentially
disastrous cocktail of grief and poverty?
Sympathetic understanding, professional
counselling and practical help. The funeral
director needs to be a one-stop shop.
By Charles King, bereavement counsellor
employed as aftercare officer at family firm of
funeral directors, Rowland Brothers
www.funeralservicetimes.co.uk