Quaker Social Action procession in Parliament Square. Photo: Quaker Social Action.
Call to increase funeral funding
Quaker Social Action held a funeral procession in Parliament Square
The Fair Funerals campaign, which is run by Quaker Social Action, held a funeral procession in Parliament Square on 17 October to deliver a letter to chancellor Philip Hammond, calling on the government to increase the fund to cover basic funeral costs annually in line with inflation and stop families on a low income getting into debt when burying their loved ones.
The government’s Social Fund Funeral Payments scheme, which is designed to help cover the costs of a basic funeral, currently pays out less than forty per cent of the estimated average cost of a funeral.
One of the campaigners, Helen, lost her severely disabled son Aaron and was unable to afford his funeral. She and her husband cared for Aaron for twenty-five years.
She said: ‘We had always tried to save, but you don’t get much chance when you’re a carer. We applied for the funeral fund but were still left with over a thousand pounds worth of debt. Having this hanging over us was an awful reminder of Aaron’s death. I felt too ashamed to scatter Aaron’s ashes while we still owed money to the funeral director.’
Heather Kennedy, the campaigns manager of Fair Funerals, said: ‘In the fifth richest country in the world, it’s simply not good enough that grieving families are being forced into poverty and debt trying to arrange a simple funeral after someone they love dies.’
Other charities and the National Association of Funeral Directors (NAFD) have joined the Fair Funerals campaign. A petition has also been started (burythedebt.net).
