The Government’s response to the Work and Pensions Select Committee recommendations on Support for the Bereaved announced last week are disappointing and inadequate according to Emma, who was the MP behind the Funeral Services Bill introduced to Parliament in 2014.
The Bill, which called for a review of funeral affordability in the UK, came about following a tireless campaign by Emma, supported by bereaved families, funeral service providers and civil society groups to tackle the “last poverty taboo”.
Research by the Insurance Company, Royal London has shown that over 100,000 people in the UK are living with funeral debt, with the average person owing more than £1,300.
The Bill required that the Government create a standard definition of a ‘simple funeral’ that people can use to compare the costs charged by different funeral directors. The Bill also called for the introduction of a new ‘eligibility check’ as part of the Funeral Payments process, to help applicants understand whether they are likely to receive support and so let them make a better informed decision about how much they spend on a service.
The Select Committee which reviewed the Bill also recommend that the Department for Work and Pensions introduce an eligibility checker for Social Fund Funeral Payments (SFFPs) to help people unable to cover the cost of burying family. It recommends that the Government must carry out preliminary checks of a potential applicant’s eligibility for a Funeral Payment if requested and that they should be informed of the likelihood to qualify for a Funeral payment through the Social Fund within two working days.
At present, eligibility for payment is established after the funeral has taken place and on the presentation of an invoice in order for the application to be processed which does not do anything to help people pay for a simple funeral who have no way of paying costs upfront.
The cost of an average funeral in the UK increased from £3,562 to £3,702 last year – an increase of 3.9%, almost four times higher than the rate of UK inflation. These steep increases are predicted to rise rapidly into the future. And as more people face later life without enough money to get by, funeral poverty, if ignored, is on course to become a national scandal.
An eligibility checker would give claimants three key pieces of information quite quickly: whether they are eligible; how much they could receive; and options for approved local funeral directors and their fees. An eligibility checker would put claimants in a stronger position when arranging a funeral, make the complex nature of the payment clearer and help claimants make an informed choice at a time in their lives when they are probably least able to make clear decisions.
Speaking about the Government’s response to the Select Committee recommendations, Emma said:
“Whilst I welcome the Select Committee’s report and the Governments recognition that support for bereaved people needs serious improvement, they have totally failed to address how some bereaved families pay for a funeral without getting into serious debt. The Government have known about this growing problem for years now and not only have they failed to fully act on the issue, they have now turned down the recommendation for an eligibility checker that would give claimants a timely way of finding out if they are entitled to state funeral cost support or not.
Worse still, they have responded to the Committees recommendations stating that there is already an eligibility checker in place when this is simply not the case.
At the moment people need to wait until the funeral is over to find out if they’ll get any support at all. This has led to grieving families having to delay the funeral for months until they can save or otherwise find the money to bury their loved one. This is a particular problem for those whose faith requires them to be buried very quickly.
Bereaved people on low incomes have been forgotten for too long and yet more than 100,000 people are living with funeral debt, while others struggle to meet the costs. No one should have to worry about whether they can pay for their loved ones to be laid to rest with dignity and respect.
Whilst I welcome the Government’s commitment to looking at funding levels to account for the rising costs of funerals, an effective eligibility checker is at the heart of reforms needed to tackle funeral poverty.”