Funeral costs need to be a lot more transparent

WHEN a loved one dies nobody feels much like shopping around for a funeral director. You want to do the best you can afford for the departed and you want to be able to trust that the system protects those going through grief.

Sadly many people, bereaved and at their most vulnerable, are badly let down, mainly by the discrepancies in costs that can occur across the country.

Don’t die in Watford if at all possible for here the average cost of a funeral is £6,000, 37 per cent higher than the national average: £4,241.

Many councils are seeing an increase in public health funerals or as they are sometimes called “pauper burials”. This may well be because individuals have been unable to put funds in place for their old age (what chance for savers when interest rates have been at rock bottom for a decade?) or they find themselves alone and distanced from their families.

There has also been a surge in the number of people who receive Government aid to help with the costs of the cremation or burial. There were 40,200 funeral payment applications in the last year. The problem, according to James Dunn, co-founder of the funeral comparison site Beyond, is that “a lack of transparency in the funeral market is... fuelling price rises, particularly among the big chains”.

Buying a funeral is not a normal purchase. Customers need to be helped and given all the information they need.

Work must be done to remedy the situation or risk more upset to families going through this ordeal.