Third highest for pauper funerals

New figures have revealed Perth and Kinross is the third highest area in Scotland for paupers’ funerals.

Since 2011, Perth and Kinross Council have carried out 223 ‘public health funerals’, where people die penniless and without any relatives to meet the costs of a funeral. This is the third highest of the councils who submitted responses in Scotland after Fife and Aberdeen.

Linda Thomas, vice-chair of the local government association’s community wellbeing board, said: “These tragic figures speak for themselves. People, mostly elderly, are dying around us with no family or friends nearby to care for them.

“It is a sad fact that there are thousands of people across the country with no family or friends to arrange, attend or pay for their funeral. Nobody should find themselves in that position.

“Our ageing population is growing rapidly and so is the worrying picture of isolation and loneliness across the country.”

The rise in the number of paupers’ funerals is said to be down to the rising costs of funerals and people’s savings disappearing as they live longer.

Perth and Kinross Council’s environment service carry out public health funerals in the region, with burials in a common lair at Scone Cemetery.

All undertakers based in the region agree to carry out public health funerals on the council’s behalf.