Watchdog’s funeral probe blown off course by Covid-19

THE competition watchdog has been forced to abandon some of the remedies it was considering to fix a funeral sector that is “not working well” because the coronavirus pandemic has made them unsafe to implement.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it would require funeral directors and crematoria to be more upfront with their pricing, but could not take some of the more radical measures that it had considered, such as price caps.

Martin Coleman, who chaired the CMA’s inquiry panel, said: “Given the inherently distressing circumstances in which people arrange a funeral, we want to make sure they can be confident that they are not being overcharged and that their loved one is cared for properly – this is what our investigation has focused on.”

Insurance company Royal London had been pushing for funeral help for low-income families and for information on pricing to be available in hospitals and care homes.

“It’s disappointing that the CMA’s investigation hasn’t resulted in the change we had hoped but it is encouraging to see that funeral directors will have to be more upfront with the pricing and services they offer,” it said.

“While there has been change in the market since it was put under scrutiny by the CMA, there is more work to be done, particularly for low-income families who fall into funeral poverty.”

Lindesay Mace, who manages Quaker Social Action’s Down to Earth project, said she was delighted the CMA had recognised problems in the industry, but said it had not gone far enough.

“It is deeply disappointing that price controls are not being implemented at this time and we will seek to hold the CMA to their promise of revisiting this in the future,” she said.

James Daley, of Fairer Finance, supported the CMA’s decision.

“I think price controls need to be a last resort, and the first thing you need to do is enable competition to work, and it doesn’t work in this sector,” he told the PA news agency.

He said it is more important to allow consumers to easily compare and understand what they are getting – as well as introducing a minimum standard that a funeral director needs to keep to.

The CMA said that while most funeral directors give a good service, “some are providing unacceptably low levels of care of the deceased”.

The industry has been waiting for 17 months to hear the CMA’s findings.