Stealth tax? Over your dead body
CREMATION and burial fee rises across Halton and the North West have been branded an ‘ultimate stealth tax’.
Research has been undertaken by Funeralbooker comparing prices in 2016 and this year in Runcorn and Widnes.
For Widnes Crematorium, it cost £637 to be cremated last year.
The cost has risen by 9.9% to £700 this year.
Burials at Runcorn Cemetery also now cost more, up by 4.4% from £1,490 last year to a current price of £1,555.
According to the figures from the funeral comparison service, Halton is the cheapest place in Cheshire to be buried.
For cremations however the borough is the second most expensive in the county behind Cheshire West And Chester.
Overall the findings show that cremation fees are going up by an average of 6.5% across the North West – the biggest hike seen in the UK.
Burial fees are not far behind, increasing by an average of 4.6%.
As a result families find themselves forced to shell out £741 on average for a cremation, while the average burial fee in the North West now costs £1,617.
It compares to the UK as a whole where the average cremation fee now comes in at £753, while burial costs significantly more at £1,792. The price increases in the North West leave the region as the seventh most expensive in which to be cremated and the fifth most expensive in which to be buried.
Funeralbooker co-founder James Dunn said: “These price hikes are the ultimate stealth tax, going completely unnoticed by families until their moment of need. But with such significant price differences now appearing across the region, many will be questioning whether these fees genuinely reflect the service they are getting or are simply down to opportunistic greed.
“Cremation is the cheapest option, but affordability is of growing concern.
“And, with one privatelyowned crematorium in the region close to breaking the £1,000 barrier, the danger is that others will raise their fees to follow suit.
“If these costs continue to climb, families will struggle and we will see funerals causing even greater hardship and stress.
“Disbursements, or cremation and burial fees, are almost entirely unavoidable, but families can protect themselves by planning ahead.
“If meeting the cost of a funeral ● would be a struggle then it might be worth taking out a pre-paid funeral plan, which will guarantee to meet your funeral director’s fees and will help meet the costs of disbursements.
“It’s also worth remembering that independent funeral directors typically offer better valuefor-money and a more personal service than the big chains, so it’s definitely worth going online to shop around.”
A Halton Borough Council spokesman said: “We have had to push up prices so that we can cover the cost of our services without an additional burden on the public.
“Taking the decision to increase fees is never easy for a council, but with the financial pressures that we are faced with, we have no other option.
“Our costs are still only a small percentage of the overall cost of a funeral.”