QSA flags Cost of Dying report
126% - How much the cost of a funeral has risen in the last twenty years.
The cost of a funeral has risen by a greater percentage than house prices in the last twenty years, Quaker Social Action (QSA) has highlighted.
‘SunLife’s annual Cost of Dying report always makes for sobering reading,’ said Lindesay Mace, Down to Earth co-manager for QSA. The 2024 report, released in January, shows the price of a ‘basic funeral’ has risen ‘a staggering 126% in the last 20 years, more than general inflation (72%), wages (76%), or even house prices (96%)’, she said. ‘It is unsurprising therefore that the proportion of families experiencing “notable financial concerns” when paying for a funeral has also increased, for the fourth year running.’
QSA worked with SunLife on the report this year, for the first time. Across all people surveyed (1,522), one in four (twenty-four per cent) said that paying for the funeral had affected their standard of living. Of this group, over four in ten (forty-two per cent) had to cut back on essential items, like food, and nearly three in ten (twenty-seven per cent) struggled to pay their bills.
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