help to pay for a funeral any advice please

[sarah6]

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

Edited July 15, 2012 by citizenB
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[citizenB]

I will try and find some help for you.

[sarah6]

thanks x

[MIKEY DABODEE]

I would ask the funeral director first for a full break down off the bill,

I thought this comes as standard, you will see at a glance how he gets his figures.

He should have given you a full break down anyway and will be able to give you these details no problems.

then you can work out if your award is correct

Sorry to hear about your loss.

 

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/BenefitsTaxCreditsAndOtherSupport/Bereaved/DG_10018660

 

and you have you have a month to get in your appeal.

[sarah6]

the bill i have breaks down like this

 

hearse and 1 limousine attending funeral £2075.00

cemetery fees £580.00

ministers fees £60.00

organist fees £45.00

to supply of order of service £50.00

 

total £2810.00

 

they do not mention the cost off the coffin in this so i can only assum it is hidden in something else or was free lol.

now considering the cars is the biggest part by far. i can see how they justify charging so much for a 20 min ride from the house to the funeral home (just the limo used) and a 5 min ride from funeral home to cemenrty for both hearse and limo and then limo back to the wake venue 10 min drive. so total use of car for 35 min and hearse for 5 min.

[sarah6]

sorry thats supposed to read i can't see how the justify charging so much. lol

[citizenB]

Seems very odd that they havent included the cost of the coffin ?

[sarah6]

well yes, thast what i thought would have cost the most and would surely come under burial costs? for social fund purposes.

[theuprightman]

Something not right there. I buried my old man not so long back 1 car plus the Hearse and it was only 2k including all the fees.

[sparky514]

I think it depends on what funeral directors you use, if you went to the CO-OP they are one of the most expensive!, sorry for your loss

[assisted blonde]

I think if you speak to the funeral directors you may find that for some reason the cost of the coffin and preparation of the deceased may have been included in the car cost when it was printed out.

Also if you are struggleing to pay the remainder of the bill have you approached any charities that may be able to help, or if your father in law was a member of the armed forces at all they may be able to offer some assistance.

[ErikaPNP]

Hi Sarah. Sorry to hear your mother in law is having to go through this.

 

An appeal can only be successful where there the Social Fund has not applied the law correctly to the facts of the claim. The Funeral Payment is paid in accordance with the Social Fund Funeral and Maternity expenses regulations 2005. The regulations (specifically regulation 9 - click here to link to it) only allows for specific costs to be paid by the social fund plus a maximum contribution of £700 toward other non specific expenses, and it appears from the breakdown of the bill you have provided that the Social Fund have met the costs allowed - however I do have a query about the cemetery fees.

 

You say the Social Fund have paid £1055 but the cemetery fees are stated as £580 on the bill breakdown you provided. The cemetery fees plus £700 is £1280. Can you please tell me what area your father in law was buried in? You can pm it to me if you feel more comfortable to share the information this way. The reason I am asking is because I am trying to establish if there are more costs that should have been awarded by the Social Fund for the burial but the Social Fund use local pricing structures for burial costs so that is why I need to know where he was buried, please. I'll look into that for you once I have the area from you. I might need to come back with further questions later.

 

The cost of a coffin is not included in specified expenses.

 

There is scope to allow the reasonable cost of one return journey for her having to travel to attend the funeral however they cannot pay this cost as a specific expense if it is a limousine or similar which is travelling as part of the funeral cortege - they may include it under the £700 limit though.

[sarah6]

thanks for you help i have contacted the funeral director and asked them to break down the cost of the cars for us as we feel that they were a bit excessive, so we will wait for that.

 

the reason for the short fall is that the insurance is due to pay £210 as it was only 6 month old they are paying just what was paid in to it and not the full amount which would have been nearly £4000. the sad thing is that my father-in-law must have taken out the insurance as he must have know he didn't have long to cover the funeral costs. he told me the insurance would cover the funeral but obviously he didn't have as long left as he thought.

[ErikaPNP]

Yes, they do deduct insurance that is available or due to the claimant/responsible person. That still leave £15 unaccounted for.

 

When she went to arrange the funeral, did they give her a quote or an estimate of what the expenses would be? Again, there is reason why I ask. With an estimate, this is just a guess and the cost can go either up or down. But if she was given a quote, this is how much it will be and they cannot charge more than what is in a quote.

 

Has your mother looked into whether she could apply for the bereavement payment? This is a lump sum payment of £2000, and may go some way toward the remaining costs. More information here

 

Also, as another person mentioned there are some charities that can help with funeral costs. For example, if he was a war veteran, the vets agency offers assistance and some charities offer assistance if he died from a specific illness. It's worth looking into these to see if there is any other assistance available.

 

Losing a loved one is enough to have to cope with in itself, without having to deal with all of this on top of it. I hope she manages to get some sort of help. Please do not hesitate to post further questions if you think we may be able to help.