Will paupers’ funerals be banished by the Church?

THE Church of England is set to offer help to families who cannot afford to pay for a loved one’s funeral.

The move would be aimed at ending the scandal of paupers’ funerals, which deny grieving relatives the chance to mourn the dead with dignity.

There is rising concern about the treatment of more than 1,000 working families every year who are unable to pay for a send off when a relative dies.

Public health funerals provided in such cases by local councils – still often called paupers’ funerals in the language of the Victorian workhouse – include only the barest committal ceremony and in some cases families are not allowed to attend.

These services cost around £1,500 compared to at least £4,000 for a private send off. some 21 councils, it was disclosed last week, do not return ashes to families unless they pay a fee.

Around a third of the 4,000 public health funerals in the financial year that ended last March involved a working family that could not afford a private service, according to the royal London insurance group.

The Church, which conducts around a

‘A compassionate send off’

quarter of funerals in England, could now bail out struggling families with cash subsidies, free use of churches and volunteer help from clergy or lay members.

its parliament, the General synod, is expected to back a call to set up a paupers’ funeral group, which could be led by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The synod motion, proposed by lay member sam Margrave, has already won backing from more than a quarter of the body’s members.

it states that the Church should work with councils and funeral companies ‘to find ways at an affordable price to deliver a more compassionate send- off for the departed and to meet the spiritual and emotional needs of those left behind’.

The Church of England’s funerals head, the reverend Canon Dr sandra Millar, said: ‘it is a terrible thought that someone is so alone when they die that there are “known only to God”.

‘That often happens when a person dies with no relatives. But it also happens when there are grieving family and friends – but little or no financial resource.’