PAUPER’S FUNERALS: DEATH AND DIGNITY IN DICKENSIAN BRITAIN..
ONE in every 100 people who died in the UK last year was laid to rest in a pauper’s funeral, a Mirror investigation reveals.
Nearly 6,000 were given a “public health funeral”, a basic ceremony funded by councils for those who die in poverty or with no next of kin.
The record total was up 26% on the year before as the pandemic ripped through the country.
Such funerals often have no flowers and sometimes not even a service, and the dead may be placed in unmarked shared graves.
Against an almost Dickensian backdrop of poverty, rising funeral costs and more people living and dying alone, the numbers have been going up long-term, experts told the Mirror.
One of the youngest last year was “Baby Ruja”, who died the day she was born in Doncaster, South Yorks, and was cremated four months later. The oldest included Maxima Andreo, 103, in Barnet, North London, and 101-year-old Frances Oldridge in Southampton.
Christina Martin of Wealden District Council in East Sussex organised and attended 11 such funerals last year, up from four in 2019. But the pandemic does not account for most of the rise, she said, adding: “I’ve had a couple of Covid funerals but it seems more about the ageing population and not having the traditional family set-up.
FUNDING
“It’s also becoming more often about the funding. National Insurance is going up, council tax will too.
“People just aren’t going to have sufficient cash for the funeral – it can be £4,000 for even a basic funeral.”
The Mirror compared Freedom of Information data from 362 out of 371 councils and found there were 5,875 pauper’s funerals last year, with the true total likely to be close to 6,000 – or one in 100 deaths.
Chelmsford, Essex, had a 700% increase from three in 2019 to 24 last year.
In the London Borough of Barnet it was up 538%, from eight to 51. London overall had a 46% increase, while Birmingham City Council had the most at 507, up 25% on
2019. Shadow Communities Secretary Steve Reed said: “The rise in these cases speaks more of Victorian England than the 21st century. It owes much to a decade of Conservative austerity and the struggle to make ends meet.”
Our probe found a link in England and Wales between a bigger rise in excess deaths in 2020, blamed largely on Covid, and a bigger increase in pauper’s funerals.
most of those having a pauper’s funeral died from other causes. Most are cremated, but if it is clear they would have preferred burial they are put in an unmarked common grave.
Efforts are made to contact relatives to attend a funeral, but if no one comes forward a council worker is often present for the stripped-down service, as a mark of respect. Funeral director Jeremy Field admitted the cost of funerals was a factor.
He said: “For a lot of people, finding £3,500-£4,000 at short notice is not easy. With a lot of people losing their jobs, that does not help. The GovernBut ment help for funerals for people on certain benefits does not cover the costs and the number of people who qualify for it has decreased.
“I think that’s pushed more people into public health funerals.” He
People just don’t have enough cash for a funeral – even a basic one can be £4,000
CHRISTINA MARTIN OF WEALDEN DISTRICT COUNCIL
accepted there may be a stigma attached to them, but said: “On the day of the funeral, they wouldn’t really know it’s a public health funeral.
“I remember one for a veteran. He had no one. My funeral director was a standard bearer at the British Legion and he arranged for someone from the Legion to pay respects.”
Disposing of the body is the responsibility of the council where a person died, not where they lived. Christina of Wealden District Council arranged the funeral of a woman found in the waters of Cuckmere Haven, near Eastbourne, in nothing but underwear and some jewellery. Despite an international appeal she remains unidentified, but the publicity of the appeal meant 115 people went to her funeral.
One childless man, Alan, died alone after his wife had passed away.
But Christina said: “The whole town seemed to come out for him. His chip shop closed for the day. Just because he did not have 2.4 children, doesn’t mean he didn’t have a great life.”