Funeral costs rise despite limits on time and mourners

THE cost of funerals has risen even though the average ceremony only lasts 15 minutes, an analysis has found.

Two thirds of councils have increased the cost of a cremation by up to 16 per cent from last year, according to research by the BBC, with a quarter freezing prices and just seven having cut costs.

This is despite government guidelines reducing the allotted time for services and the number of mourners who can attend.

Some councils told the BBC that the decision to increase prices was made before the pandemic hit.

One said that the coronavirus guidelines meant staff had needed extra training.

Cllr Katrina Wood, of the Local Government Association, said that council fees account for less than a quarter of the overall cost of a cremation but that authorities had worked hard during the crisis to ensure mourners could attend safely.

Lindesay Mace, of Down to Earth, a project aimed at tackling funeral poverty by the charity Quaker Social Action, said that some crematoria were making large profits while families struggled.

She added: “We support people every day who are stressed and worried about how they are going to pay for a funeral, to the point where it limits their ability to grieve.”

Neville Wilson, 66, a machine engineer, told the BBC that he had not been offered a reduced fee by Coventry City Council for his wife Doreen’s funeral which was reduced to 20 minutes. He described it as a “pauper’s funeral” and said: “It couldn’t get any worse if we’d tried.”

The council told the BBC that services had to be reduced in length to allow for deep cleaning and that this increased, rather than reduced, costs.

Julie Dunk, of the Institute of Cemetery and Crematorium Management told the BBC that councils have had to invest in environmentally friendly equipment in recent years, which has left them needing to recover costs.