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| ‘Parents have to borrow from loan sharks to pay for their child’s funeral’ ‘Parents have to borrow from loan sharks to pay for their child’s funeral’ | |
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| Any death is hard, but the unnatural experience of burying your own child is particularly traumatic. When 17-year-old Eva went into labour at 22 weeks she was worried. Her daughter was born, but didn’t take a breath before dying. This small fact, in an already hellish situation, became crucial later on. Eva worked 16 hours a week in a local shop in east London, but paying the capital’s exorbitant rents as well as earning little meant she was unable to afford the funeral costs. She applied for financial help from the Social Fund – state funding to help people on low incomes with one-off or occasional expenses such as funeral payments – but was informed by an adviser that Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) rules meant that as her daughter had not reached 24 weeks gestation, or taken a breath, she was classified as “medical waste” in bureaucratic terms. | Any death is hard, but the unnatural experience of burying your own child is particularly traumatic. When 17-year-old Eva went into labour at 22 weeks she was worried. Her daughter was born, but didn’t take a breath before dying. This small fact, in an already hellish situation, became crucial later on. Eva worked 16 hours a week in a local shop in east London, but paying the capital’s exorbitant rents as well as earning little meant she was unable to afford the funeral costs. She applied for financial help from the Social Fund – state funding to help people on low incomes with one-off or occasional expenses such as funeral payments – but was informed by an adviser that Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) rules meant that as her daughter had not reached 24 weeks gestation, or taken a breath, she was classified as “medical waste” in bureaucratic terms. |
| At this stage, distraught, and with no way to pay for her baby’s burial, Eva contacted Quaker Social Action (QSA), a small charity that campaigns on funeral poverty and advises people struggling with the costs of burials and cremations. Luckily, the charity was able to advise on cost-cutting measures, find a funeral director willing to waive fees and referred Eva to a benevolent trust that paid the balance. Eva is far from an isolated case. The charity says it is seeing increasing numbers of parents who struggle to afford burial fees. | At this stage, distraught, and with no way to pay for her baby’s burial, Eva contacted Quaker Social Action (QSA), a small charity that campaigns on funeral poverty and advises people struggling with the costs of burials and cremations. Luckily, the charity was able to advise on cost-cutting measures, find a funeral director willing to waive fees and referred Eva to a benevolent trust that paid the balance. Eva is far from an isolated case. The charity says it is seeing increasing numbers of parents who struggle to afford burial fees. |
| Even if Eva had been entitled to a Social Fund funeral payment, it is paid retrospectively and takes the DWP three months on average to process – so parents often have to borrow money from payday lenders and loan sharks to meet upfront costs, racking up debts. | Even if Eva had been entitled to a Social Fund funeral payment, it is paid retrospectively and takes the DWP three months on average to process – so parents often have to borrow money from payday lenders and loan sharks to meet upfront costs, racking up debts. |
| Eva, like many people in poverty, didn’t have the savings and couldn’t easily borrow money to pay thousands in advance for even a basic funeral. The stress of grief is compounded by the guilt of being unable to give your loved one a dignified funeral, and the shame of poverty worsens the emotional toll. | Eva, like many people in poverty, didn’t have the savings and couldn’t easily borrow money to pay thousands in advance for even a basic funeral. The stress of grief is compounded by the guilt of being unable to give your loved one a dignified funeral, and the shame of poverty worsens the emotional toll. |
| Some councils do waive fees for children’s burials, but it is a postcode lottery and grieving parents are hardly in a position to shop around. The government rejected a proposal from the work and pensions select committee earlier this year that it should fund the cost of a basic funeral for people who do not have the means to pay. | Some councils do waive fees for children’s burials, but it is a postcode lottery and grieving parents are hardly in a position to shop around. The government rejected a proposal from the work and pensions select committee earlier this year that it should fund the cost of a basic funeral for people who do not have the means to pay. |
| One in seven people who organised a funeral in the past four years said it caused notable financial conern | One in seven people who organised a funeral in the past four years said it caused notable financial conern |
| This isn’t a fringe concern: QSA says 10% of its cases involve child funerals. Moreover, SunLife life insurance reports that one in seven people who organised a funeral in the past four years said it had caused them notable financial concern, with 10% selling belongings and one in four using credit cards to cover costs. In most of the UK, the average cost of a funeral has more than doubled in the past 12 years to £3,897. | This isn’t a fringe concern: QSA says 10% of its cases involve child funerals. Moreover, SunLife life insurance reports that one in seven people who organised a funeral in the past four years said it had caused them notable financial concern, with 10% selling belongings and one in four using credit cards to cover costs. In most of the UK, the average cost of a funeral has more than doubled in the past 12 years to £3,897. |
| In her first statement as prime minister, Theresa May pledged to fight against “burning injustice”. With this in mind Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour party leader, has called for the chancellor, Philip Hammond, to set aside £10m in the autumn statement to allow councils to offer a free burial or cremation for each of the 5,000 children a year who die in the UK. May, however, has said it is up to councils to decide whether they can foot the bill. With councils struggling to fund vital services as their budgets are slashed, this is unlikely. So Hammond must back a funeral fund to lift the financial burden of grieving parents, such as Eva, who find themselves burying their children. | In her first statement as prime minister, Theresa May pledged to fight against “burning injustice”. With this in mind Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour party leader, has called for the chancellor, Philip Hammond, to set aside £10m in the autumn statement to allow councils to offer a free burial or cremation for each of the 5,000 children a year who die in the UK. May, however, has said it is up to councils to decide whether they can foot the bill. With councils struggling to fund vital services as their budgets are slashed, this is unlikely. So Hammond must back a funeral fund to lift the financial burden of grieving parents, such as Eva, who find themselves burying their children. |