Out of the Quiet

Matt Wall reports on a recent initiative at Taunton Meeting House

West Somerset Area Meeting is hosting an inspirational series of talks, on the first Wednesday of each month, at the beautifully restored Taunton Meeting House.

Not quite knowing what to expect, having finished work, I arrived at a bustling Taunton Meeting House recently and was greeted with a tasty bowl of soup before being welcomed to hear from Judith Moran of Quaker Social Action (QSA). Judith gave an overview of QSA, which has existed for almost 150 years with the aim of providing practical responses to poverty. She got us participating in some practical exercises that QSA use with communities across the UK to re-examine attitudes to money:

a) Want or Need? Participants in this workshop were given a list of items and asked to discuss whether they fell in the category of ‘want’ or ‘need’. Of course, this created lots of discussion with a range of views on each item. For example, some would say a computer was a want, but it was also pointed out that for those currently in education it was becoming much more of a necessity.

b) What Age? Participants in this group had to put themselves in the position of a parent thinking about what was the appropriate age for different financial decisions: at what age a child needed pocket money, or when they should have a mobile phone, or when they should start being paid for household chores. Again, this brought out lots of differing views and demonstrated the complex decision-making that parents have to make all the time.

c) How much for a TV? In this workshop participants had to work out what was the cheapest and most expensive way of purchasing a new TV set, with options including: cash, credit unions, credit card, hire purchase, payday loan or high street lenders. The exercise showed how QSA is playing a role in speaking the truth to power and equipping people with the facts.

Judith spoke about QSA’s work helping people navigate the various financial aspects of arranging a funeral. She explained that the vast majority of funeral directors do not display a full range of costs on their websites and that there are several ways of making funerals less of a financial burden. In the year 2014-15 those who went to QSA for help were able to reduce their funeral bill by an average of £2,237 as a result of the support they had received.

There is no registered trade body for funeral directors. To help tackle the paucity of ethical guidelines for how the profession handles financial issues, QSA have launched the Fair Funerals Pledge, which asks funeral directors to commit to the following points:

1. Recognise funerals can be expensive and many people struggle with the cost.

2. Make [their] most affordable funeral package visible to the public, including third party costs.

3. Charge clear prices for goods and services so people know what they’re buying. Communicate prices in initial conversations and prominently display full price lists.

I was encouraged to hear that almost fifteen per cent of funeral directors have now adopted the pledge and I’m sure this will put pressure on others to also assess their ethical standards.

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