Friends welcome cut in Dignity Simple Funeral costs
Quaker Social Action welcomes announcement by funeral operator
Quaker Social Action (QSA) has welcomed the news that the UK’s biggest privately-owned funeral operator, Dignity, recently announced it is reducing the cost of its Simple Funeral by twenty-five per cent.
Dignity has slashed the price of its Simple Funeral to £1,995 in England and Wales and to £1,695 in Scotland in a move that could mean greater choice for bereaved families. The company owns over 800 funeral homes and operates forty-four crematoria around the UK.
Giles Robinson, who works in communication and marketing at QSA, told the Friend: ‘Over the four years of running the Fair Funerals campaign, one of our key aims has been to encourage funeral directors to improve price transparency and to consider those on the lowest incomes when setting prices for their simplest options.
‘While funeral poverty continues to grow, it is pleasing to have both of the largest funeral directors in the UK, Dignity and Co-Operative Funeral Care, adjusting their options and improving transparency.
‘However, there will always be people who cannot afford to pay. Our efforts continue to be focused on pressuring the government to raise the safety net, which still sadly sits at under forty per cent of a basic funeral’s cost.’
Many other funeral homes around the UK already offer lower-cost funeral packages for bereaved families, but, according to QSA, funeral costs increased fifty per cent in five years.
QSA, in a tweet, described the decision by Dignity as ‘big news for our @endfuneralpov campaign’ and urged Friends in Britain to ‘support the #BurytheDebt campaign by signing a petition’ that calls on the chancellor of the exchequer Philip Hammond to raise the state funeral fund.
