Hi, My mum sadly passed away in August in Hospital, aged only 52. I have taken on the responsibility of arranging her funeral. She left no will nor did she have any assets, at the time of her death she was claiming ESA and living in a hostel. I have filled in the post office form to close her account but I doubt very much that there was much if anything in there as I went to her accommodation after she passed and she had been counting coppers before she was taken to hospital. I have spoken to the DWP bereavement service this morning about help with funeral costs, they told me it is unlikely I will get any help as I have a working sister and mum had 3 siblings too. My sister hasn't spoken to my mum in 10 years after she left to live with our dad at 14, their relationship broke down after mums mental health and alcohol issues rendered her unable to care for my sister. The same goes for mums brother and sisters, they haven't spoken in many years, due to my mums issues and how difficult she was to maintain a relationship with. I have stood by her, supported and helped her as much as possible and remained in regular contact with her, going on days out and spending quality time together, I was with her the whole week leading to her passing and held her hand in her last moments. I am a lone parent, working 18 hours a week, I get a working and child tax credit and housing benefit reduction, so I believe because of that I am eligible to claim for help, I have asked them to send me the form to complete but is there really any point in me doing that now that they have said there are other adults who could pay? They wont! They also told me I would be responsible for any over-payment of benefit mum might of received, but if the way they see it is all close relatives should be responsible for the funeral, why not hold them all responsible for over-payments too? I have not gone all out on her funeral, no cars or masses of flowers or over priced coffin, just a basic graveside humanist ceremony in the same cemetery as her parents, although costs are slightly higher as she is being transported from the south of England to the north of England. Sorry, waffling. So my question is, should I bother applying for funeral expenses or just focus on getting the funds and making an arrangement with the funeral directors? Thank you.

Hi, Hope someone can help. Our daughter recently died.We have had the funeral but the matter of costs is worrying. She has no estate as such and only has around £800 in her account . She received an ESA payment of around £250 2 days after death and one weeks housing benefit of around £80. My main question is her funeral has cost around £2600 + , we paid the cremation fees and cost for a celebrant up front which was around £1000. There is a £1600 bill to be paid to the funeral directors which is due on the 10th April. My brother in law who used to be a bank manager is dealing with her money etc... on a sort of imformal basis as the estate/money is so small. Can my brother in law direct all the money in her account towards funeral costs or will the DWP or council demand repayment of any overpayments? My brother in law says they can chase after him for overpayments as we are aware the payments came into her account before we had a chance to freeze her account. My wife and i are on low income but don`t qualify for a funeral grant(as far as aware) as we are only on working tax credits (without child element) and a basic state pension (without pension credit). Any help or advice appreciated. We are preapred to pay the remainder of the £1600 due but need clarity on how much we can use from her account.

Children’s Funeral Fund for England READ MORE HERE: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/childrens-funeral-fund-for-england

Hi, Im desperately hoping someone can advise... To cut a really long story short, i took a career break from my bank job to care for my sick husband in 2012. It left us with minimum income other than disability allowance and carers allowance as because i was still classed as employed we were told we couldnt claim any other benefit, not that we wanted to. We never have had any state benefits. My husband passed away in 2013 and i had to pay his funeral costs, half of which i paid upfront. His family were meant to pay the other half but never did. Subsequently the co-op billed me. I had gotten in to a mess financially since still being off work, entitled to no benefits and trying to deal with my own grief aswell as supporting my 9 year old daughter with hers. Falling behind with mortgage payments and council tax i had to agree to pay almost double on them both to avoid reposession of the house and removal of goods for bailiffs. I counted these as my priority debts and put everything else to the bottom of the list including the coop bill. They issued a ccj against me which unfortunately then meant i couldnt go back to my old job (i work for a bank and policy is no ccjs). I have since started up my own business and draw £100 a week wages when there is enough money to take of course. I also now get working tax credits so a tiny bit better off. The solicitors dealing with the case sent me an enforcement notification. I rang straight away to see if i could make some kind of arrangement but they said no. The original outstanding was £2200. The ccj had £2900 and now ive had a letter through the door telling me its £3900!! The bailiff has said in the letter he will come back and take my car. And other goods within 7 days, i have tried to speak to the solicitors but they've said its pay the lot or nothing. Ive submitted for n245 to the court with a copy if my income and expenditure but i really need a bit of advice. Will the bailiff allow me to make payments by instalments or will they just keep coming back and taking my things regardless of the fact i can prove i dont have the means to pay. If they take everything i have and its still not enough what will they do then?? I feel totally helpless Hoping for some/any kind of advice... Shelley

Hi. Sadly my sister passed away last week, she was not too well after her husband had a heart attack 5 months ago. My sister wasn't very well and was receiving £300 DLA per month and £700 Universal Credit per month. I spoke with my mum and stepdad who have said they have been to the funeral directors today and they are asking for £1800. My mum and step dad are both retired and are what you could call low income. They definitely do not have the means to pay such funds. We are in the belief that the social services should be doing more to liaise with the funeral directors to tey get some money paid. Can someone please help and advise what should be happening here? The funeral is set for next Friday 20th October.

Recently my father who i have not seen for over 40 years recently passed away, my brother has been in contact with our father over the years but nothing recent. My brother has confirmed he had a policy to cover his funeral but he amount is only £1,600.00 My brother who is on benefits has contacted the DWP with regard to the funeral payment but has been told as our father had other family member not on benefit he cannot claim the payment. According to the DWP he cannot apply or receive the funeral payment due to our late father having 2 other children, my brother explained that we had no contact for over 40 years but they said its totally irreverent and due to myself and my sister not being on benefits we are being told to pay the costs in full. Are the DWP correct in the information they are stating ?????

Hello all I have joined this site to ask for some serious advice, as I can't find a strait forward answer anywhere and not so trusting of Youtube video's, without meaning to discredit the knowledge obtainable and to be disrespectful, I'm just an anallytical kind of person. My case is one which has caused me a lot of suffering my father passed away back in 2015, I rang around to find the cheapest funeral option for myself to take out (sounds bad I know, money is tight) I contacted one director who gave me a price of £3100.00, who then dropped it down to £2900.00. Just under half was paid of via a funeral grant with the social fund, I'm now left owing £1500.00. My issue is I asked the funeral director to allow me to do a speech, at least 6 times when I met him, he said this would be fine and then we chose the music and so forth, I left then on the day of the funeral he skipped my chance to speak and left it as a silent memorial with just music playing. I should have said something then but I wasn't in the best frame of minds at the time. No longer than 10 minutes after my father was lowered for cremation the director stopped me and told me not to forget about arranging the Funeral grant and not to forget paying, I was in a state of shock at this point and just nodded, then went of to the wake. I got home a couple days later, as I live roughly 200 miles away from where my father was, I had sold my fathers van on to help with the cost of the funeral, however at this time my family hit another crisis, My "Father in law" turned out to be a paedophile and was convicted as such. Myself and wife are guardians over a little girl who at the time was going to a local school, she got abuse from other kids and we all got the looks and so forth from parents, there were others also connected in this Paedophile ring that had been uncovered so we had to move ASAP for our own protection, meaning I had to use that money from the van to pay, I also couldn't inform anyone even creditors at the time of an address change while investigations were ongoing. roughly 2 months passed and the funeral grant came through it was paid directly to the director. I then received an updated bill of £1500.00. I also had a breakdown at this point and was diagnosed with PTSD, Comorbid depression with secondary agoraphobia, my wife was also diagnosed with cyclothymic disorder, we completely forgot about the Funeral debt. 2016 two days before good friday I received a phone call from the funeral directors, he sounded quite irate wasn't abusive but the tone said it all, at this point I still felt under threat and wouldn't disclose my situation to him and his tone triggered myself into a Hypervigilant state, I was blunt and cold with him and said that I was in no position to make any payment in large towards the cost, I said I could only manage £20 per month as I was on benefits, he said this wasn't going to be good enough and that it would only be a drop in the pond. He then enquired about van and said he could take that as a down payment if I wanted to use it in that way, I said the van hadn't been sold yet and would get back to him on that front, keeping in mind I wasn't in the right frame of mind and began to disassociate I recognised my mind was slipping and hung up. 2017 Feb/March time, I had a phone call received from Final Demand Ltd stating that they had been contacted by their client as a last step before seeking CCJ, after explaining my position to them and emailing them my Diagnosis letter from the Psychiatrist, my letter from the Mental health team stating I was on the waiting list for Trauma Based Individual Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, a copy of the Newspaper story referring to the Paedophile case and the reasoning as to why we moved, we agreed that £20.00 a month would be acceptable. I also made them aware that I may not always be in a good state of mind when they contact so to be wary of my situation and apologised in advance and gave them permission to share what I had with them to the Funeral Director so they to could be updated to my situation. I paid the £20.00 a couple weeks later, and then made a phone call to their office on two separate numbers no answer one line was just dead. I tried multiple times on different days and nothing, so I sent them an Email asking for confirmation of their business or otherwise I wouldn't continue to pay them £20.00 every month. Still nothing I checked their business status with HMRC online using their registration number and it shows as active, I also checked their bank account details with my bank and the account was showing up as active and open still. I haven't paid anything since April, I now don't know what to do here, I don't know if to expect Bailiffs or a CCJ or to just wait it out and see what happens, considering I made offers to pay and I weren't satified with the Funeral would I have a leg to stand on in court if it came to that ? And would I get the opportunity to defend myself against a CCJ ? First time posting I apologise If I have made any mistakes or posted in the complete wrong section. Thanks in adavance for any help and advice recieved, and Kind regaurds all.

Hi everyone, I'm looking for some advice please. To cut a long story short my husband died 3 years ago. He left me with a business which had an enormous amount of debt and I have been dealing with those since (it has now ceased trading) and continue to do so, it has not been an easy 3 years. I am at my wits end with a personal creditor in relation to my husbands funeral costs which given the situation seems ironic as most of the other creditors have agreed reasonable plans (or i would have been forced to go bankrupt) but these just wont budge. The debt began as £2200 and was with the coop. My husbands family originally agreed to pay half of the total costs £5000 but never did after paying the rest myself i was also left with this remainder to sort. At the time, the coop sent me a couple of letters and i wrote back to ask if i could pay in installments. Because i had bailiffs at the door for various other debts and a repossession order for my home to deal with i didn't prioritise the debt and it ended up going to court. I was then given a CCJ. My fault but couldn't be helped at the time. I had stupidly assumed once that had been done i could then agree a payment arrnagement via the court. This wasn't the case. Within a month or so i had a letter from Andrew Wilson and Co demanding the full amount within 7 days. I spent hours on the phone to them but they would not consider a payment plan as said i had broken the previous. Fair enough i suppose. Not having much of a choice the guy on the phone told me to wait until the HCEO came around and agree a plan with him. Having considered this further and after a visit to the CAB i was told to go back to court and ask for the judgement to be varied. I paid the fees to do this and went back to court. In the court the judge told me he saw no reason for the judgement to be set aside (not what i'd asked for) and as i hadn't bought any reasonable evidence as to why i couldn't pay (had stacks of debt letters and my husband had only been dead 6 months) he threw it out. The solicitor for the other side was nice - looked through all of my paperwork and told me he couldn't really give me any advice as it was clear i had no money to pay and no assets to the value. He said he would speak to his client about the £20 proposal i had offered as a token payment until i could get my finances in order. 2 weeks later i had a reply from AW telling me the client was willing to accept payments of £50 a month. I couldn't afford it but agreed and somehow (mostly going without things other people might class as essentials) i have been paying it for now 20 months. Today i decided to ask for a balance on my account. The debt started out as £2200. My balance as of today including the payments i have made is £3476. I am totally bereft. I have asked for a breakdown which i will list below. AW have also told me interest at a rate of 62p PER DAY is being added on continuously along with a monthly fee and VAT. I feel like it is totally unachievable to repay this debt. I see no light at the end of the tunnel despite having worked around the clock to try and get my life back in order. Amount of judgement £2738 Execution costs £111.75 Admin /compliance fee £75 Enforcement stage 1 £190.00 Enforcement state 1% fee £163.77 Enforcement state 2 fee £495 Accrued interest £442.80 Due to claimant £3292.69 - how? Total Levy £4401.21 Total enforcement fee £1108.52 VAT £184.75 Payments £925 Current balance £3476.21 Daily Interest £0.62 On the breakdown it says received from defendant and all the dates. Each month has: £50 credit £25 "client" £20.83 "fees" £4.17 "vat on fees" Can anyone tell me please how a debt that started as £2200 where i've paid off £1000 now rises to £3476. I have emailed the coop but they have just sent me back to AW. Just seems totally unfair and pointless i may as well of just taken the easy route at the time and gone bankrupt. It would all of been over by now but i wanted to repay everything the best i could and although i knew it would be hard have worked tirelessly to keep on top of things. Really feeling down about this. Shell

Hi, hope someone can help me. My dad passed away the end of august with nothing, no estate or anything, only £300 in his bank account. He had 2 accounts with halifax one with an overdraft of £300 which he had maxed and the other with £300 of his own money. We had the funeral and applied for a dwp funeral grant which they have given us £815 for the cremation and £700 for everything else but have taken £300 off because that is what he had in his bank account. the thing is halifax took this money to pay the overdraft on his other account. When we applied for the grant we included cofirmation from halifax to say that they were taking his money to pay the overdraft. Dwp say they shouldnt have taken it because the funeral is the first thing to be paid off and not his debts. now we have to find an extra £300 on top of what we already owe to the funeral director. Can halifax do this, are dwp right in what they are saying? Thanks for any help in advance

Does anyone know who to complain to if dis-satisfied with the funeral directors? I didn't want to give detail here incase I am in wrong thread or it's not something this website deals with. It is a very distressing time for me and I do not know where to turn. Thanks in advance.

Hello. My father died two months ago and following on from this my mother made a claim for a DWP funeral expenses payment. Initially the claim was denied as they deemed my mother wasn't in receipt of a qualifying benefit at the material time. She was and had submitted evidence of this benefit with her original application. Following a phone call to the DWP my mother re-submitted evidence of the qualifying benefit by email and the decision was reconsidered. She's received a letter and has been awarded a sum but it is reduced as they've said that there was money in my father's account that could have been used to pay towards funeral expenses. However this sum of money was Direct Payment money that my father received and could only be used in order to pay for his social care. When he died we had instructions from Social Services that we were to use this sum of money to pay any outstanding invoices for care and then return this money to social services. When my mother applied for the funeral payment she attached a copy of a letter from Social Services with these instructions, a copy of my fathers final bank statement and also made a note on the application form that this money in the account was not my father's to do with as he wished. On this basis I have the following questions: 1) Does anyone on this forum know enough about the rules to advise whether my mother has solid grounds to appeal this decision? 2) If she were to appeal and fail, would she lose the amount already awarded? 3) My understanding is that as this matter has already been subject to an internal DWP reconsideration process that any further reconsideration would have to be carried out as an independent appeal procedure - is this a formal process? Is it in person? Would we need representation? Any advice would be much appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Following the loss of my late husband I have submitted an application to the DWP Social Fund for assistance with a Funeral payment. At the time of telephoning the DWP the clerk obviously hadn't had empathy training but that's being dealt with seperately, but he sent the form out. Apparently, their rules are that they will make payment(s) directly to the funeral directors if the whole amount has not been paid in full. Surely that implies I wouldn't pay the F/D and brands me a thief of public funds? I have paid the third party dispersements of £3K (short term loan from family friend) in order to book the funeral and the balance is just over £2.5K (without headstone). If I cannot get this decision changed it will leave me in very deep financial difficulty I am trying to locate the DWP Director of Social Fund unit to raise my concerns with them about the handling of my application and would appreciate any guidance on this matter. I have searched the gov website etc but to no avail. NOTE: I am aware of my other similar post regarding this matter but as this is to do with benefits I thought I would try to simplify it for this area and to remove the sensitivity from it - Hope that is ok? Thanks in advance. Shelley

I am hoping someone with some knowledge of help with funeral costs can help me out. My Mother and I have a joint bank current account, she has no savings and neither do I. Depending on the time of the month there can be up to £1000 or more in the account. I know already that when the time comes I qualify for a funeral payment as I get DLA as well as working tax credits, so that is not the issue. My Mother is 83 and not in good health so wants to have everything in order as most people do. We have been told that when the time comes the DWP will want to see a final bank statement as part of the process of qualifying for help, which is understandable. However as we have a joint account there will not be a final statement as it will just continue in my name only. So I am assuming they will accept just a current statement? The biggest worry is will they take whatever is in the account at that time to use towards the funeral costs? As it is a joint account not all the money in it belongs to her or me, so what happens? The bank said that any money in the account will become mine as that is how it works when one person dies and they have a joint account. So would they take that money and say it has to used to pay for the funeral? The money that is in the account is money for living costs, bills etc and not savings but if they use it, then how do I pay to live until the next time I get paid? It is all quite confusing as to what happens as I guess this is not a normal set up. Any advice greatly appreciated

Hi Please can you help me, my mum passed away in July. I could not afford funeral costs, received a payment from social fund. Have recently received a letter requesting repayment, I'm so worried that they will force me to sale our house, have always lived with my mum. I am in the process of applying for probate, its taken sometime to get things sorted haven't felt like doing very much, not coping very well. There are so many issues I'm concerned about,receiving ESA at the moment, there was a shortfall in the funeral cost,the funeral home have been kind allowed me to pay installment, won't take long to clear. It's been very difficult time have no family or friends that I would feel comfortable talking to about these concerns. I 'm willing to repay the full amount to dwp, was considering offering to pay regular installments, increasing the amounts when I'm working again, not sure if that would be acceptable. hope someone can help Thanks Shaun

Hello Can you tell me if there are any schemes to help pay for my dads funeral. I have bad credit which means I cannot apply for loans and my dad, (widowed) did not leave any money for his funeral costs. He took a long time to pass away and past away on Wednesday 08th October, ( I found out on the Saturday 13th October 2014). My sister and few family friends cannot afford the funeral costs. I work for the NHS Hope you can help. BW

I'm posting this for a close relative who sadly lost her adult son this week. He was on benefits for mental health problems when he died. The funeral is yet to be arranged but where does she stand. Although she is retired herself, she does not and is not entitled to any other benefits but only just manages on her pension and private pension. She is by no means wealthy, so what I would like to know is, will she be able to pay the funeral director in monthly instalments or will she be expected to find the full cost of the funeral immediately.

My step father passed away in early 2010. We arranged a funeral service with a local company. As my sister, who was 17 at the time, was officially his next of kin (I am not blood related) she asked about claiming the funeral costs through the DWP. The funeral provider assured her this was possible, and that they could offer a basic service with a cremation. They helped her fill out the forms for the DWP and sent them off. Approximately 2 months after the funeral, the funeral directors wrote to her asking about payment. She in turn phoned the DWP and they simply replied 'it was being processed'. That was well over 3 years ago. Yesterday she received a letter from MCOL with the funeral director for a claim of £2232 plus interest and fees. It specifically claims they have written to her on several occasions, which is untrue, as stated she has heard nothing for 3 years. Any advice on what to do? Does the fact she is was under 18 at the time get her out of any contract/agreement she signed? The fact that we heard nothing from the DWP or funeral directors in over 3 years? I am going to seek advice from the citizens advice bureau tomorrow. Should I return the form and defend the claim, as I know I have 28 days to file a defence Thanks in advanced

I'm not sure it is a benefit as such butI thought people here might know the answer to my question. If someone who receives an income related benefit died and had young adult children. 2 worked but one was in receipt of IS, would that person claiming IS be able to claim for a funeral grant for their parent? Or would the Government just say the other working children should pay? The working children earn low wage and all of it goes on their living expenses and they have no savings so no spare money at all, but they do not claim any benefits either. Thanks.

14th February - 1.45 pm Church address for Martins funeral.- Service 1.45pm. Burial 2.30pm. Church Hall with Family and Friends 3.00pm onwards St Mary's Lowe House North Road St.Helens Merseyside WA10 2BE

Hi guys i have a major problem and don't know where to turn.My wife has tried to claim for a funeral grant on advice of CAB but being refused due to her brothers and sisters not on qualifying benefits we are stuck and can't cremate her father due to this there is no money to fund £2200 which we have been quoted any advise please it may not be right section and correct if appropiate

hi this is mostly for my mother-in-law, my father-in-law passed away from cancer a few months ago. he had no assets and no money, the insurance policy he had was only 6 months old so basically no good. when arranging the funeral it was made clear that she had no money and would be applying for a furenal grant from the social fund to cover the costs. well as it is they have paid £1055 off the funeral which is the cost of burial plus £700 towards other costs. the total bill is £2800 so she is left with £1700 to pay and no money to pay it she has made an appeal to the social fund, but i was looking at her bill and she has been charged just over £2000 for hurse and 1 car. this to me seems a bit much and from what i can find the cars would come into the £700 for other costs. am i right in thinking that if thats the case then the appeal will make no difference and we are stuck with a bill off £1700 to pay. anyone got any ideas thanks sarah

I have been charged £4,534.00 for a simple funeral in Kent. Does anyone know if this is excessive and if so who do I go to for help? debgirl

My Mum died in May and my Dad used the co-op for the funeral, I went with my dad to sort out everything and we were told the cheapest was £2,200, which we accepted. My Dad is a pensioner and had to get a grant of £1,200 from the authorities, he has no money so my sisters and myself paid the extra 1,000 which we paid up front, and My dad then paid the 1,200 when his grant came through, my dad has no way of repaying my Sisters and me and as it was for my Mum we have written off the money. HOWEVER. Yesterday my dad and one of my Sisters saw an expose on Co-op funeral service and it was mentioned that infact the cheapest funeral is £1,200 the same as the grant but employees were told not to offer it as the co-op didnt make any profit. With this in mind I am wondering if the co-op have infact mis-sold the funeral and would we be within our rights to try and get the 1,000 extra back we paid. The funeral itself was lovely but the cost only included one car and restricted times which we understand from the programme was the same as the £1,200 one. Mods please move this to another area if this is the wrong one

A very prestigious cardiologist died, and was given a very elaborate funeral by the hospital he worked for most of his life... A huge heart... covered in flowers stood behind the casket during the service as all the doctors from the hospital sat in awe. Following the eulogy, the heart opened, and the casket rolled inside. The heart then closed, sealing the doctor in the beautiful heart forever. At that point, one of the mourners just burst into laughter. When all eyes stared at him, he said, 'I'm so sorry... I was just thinking of my own funeral...I'm a gynecologist!' The priest fainted!......................

The Traffic Warden’s funeral As the coffin was being lowered into the ground at a Traffic Warden’s funeral a voice from inside squawks: "I'm not dead, I'm not dead! Let me out!!!" The Vicar smiles, leans forward sucking air through his teeth and mutters: "Too late pal, paperwork’s already done"