If you don’t have £10,000 saved up to pay for the cost of your own death, your survivors will be stuck with a hefty bill, it seems.

Here’s The Independent:

According to SunLife’s annual report looking at the growing expenses for the bereaved, the average cost has soared to £9,658. This figure, which includes the price of a funeral, professional fees and other send-off costs, is the highest in the 20 years SunLife has been tracking them.

A basic funeral in the UK, which includes a burial or cremation, all funeral director fees, a mid-range coffin, one funeral limousine, as well as doctor and celebrant fees, have increased to £4,141 from £3,953 last year.

A hike in send-off costs to £2,768 and in professional fees to £2,749 means the overall cost of dying is up £458 year on year.

The pressure of rising funeral costs has left one in five families experiencing “notable financial concerns”.

Among these, three-quarters of people reported that paying for the funeral impacted their mental health, and two-thirds experienced an impact on their physical health.

Now let’s hear from Susan Bradley, who lost both her mother and sister within 10 months – as also reported in The Independent:

The 51-year-old from Birmingham was devastated when her mother passed away on 9 June 2022 following a stroke and further complications.

The emotional distress of her grief was only intensified by the stress of having to scrape together money for the funeral costs.

The total expenses with Central Co-op Funeral amounted to £4,800, which was to be split between six relatives.

The 51-year-old said she had to be “extra careful” with money and was forced to neglect some of her long-standing payments.

After struggling through her mother’s funeral costs, Ms Bradley was faced with another tragedy – her sister’s sudden passing at the age of 37 in April last year.

The bill for her sister’s funeral increased by £1,000 from that of her mother’s the previous year.

Here comes the helpful bit:

With her carer’s allowance her only income, plus the additional costs of taking in her sister’s two children, Ms Bradley reached out for help to cover the costs of the funeral.

She googled until she found Down to Earth, a UK-wide helpline offering advice and practical support to people struggling with funeral costs.

Down to Earth made an application for Ms Bradley to charity Turn2us who awarded the family £1,980 towards the funeral. They also directed Ms Bradley to Teaching Staff Trust, who provide hardship grants to help people in or previously involved in the education sector through times of financial trouble.

The trust helped the family cover the majority of the remaining expenses of the funeral, significantly reducing the burden for Ms Bradley’s family.

According to the article, people facing spiralling funeral costs are increasingly failing to either heat or eat. They find they are unable to do what the deceased person wanted or what they feel is right to honour that person and it makes some people mentally, emotionally, and physically very ill.

With government help dwindling down to nothing, in real terms – and no surprises there – it is fortunate that these charitable organisations exist to pick up the slack.

But how many of us even know they exist? And will demand for their help rocket beyond their ability, now that we know they do?

Source: Sunlife report: Cost of dying reaches record high in UK, new report reveals | The Independent

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