Londoners could face new crisis as funerals in boroughs rise

All sorts of things have become unaffordable in recent months. From heating to eating the cost of living crisis has hit many far too hard however recent figures the crippling cost a funeral can cost a household.

When saying goodbye to a loved one the last thing you want is to think about the price but Legacy of Lives says that many Londoners are paying over the odds for funerals. The cost of dying (funeral plus other expenses) was £8,864 in 2021 according to Sunlife, over a third of a median household income in some of London’s poorest boroughs.

This could mean that a death in the family isn’t only emotionally devastating but financially too. As part of its research Legacy of Lives looked at the disparity of cost for a funeral in different London boroughs and found that some areas were effectively in a ‘funeral lottery’.

In Battersea, for instance, figures showed an enormous difference in the cost of a basic funeral from different areas just two miles apart. While in one area it was only £1,060 in another the prices almost quadrupled to £3,715. Compared to the rest of the UK Londoners are expected to shell out £7,259 for a burial, roughly £2,500 more than any other area of the country.

This cost is fairly crippling for a household in Newham where the median household income is just £23,143. The cost of a funeral in the borough is said to be around the same as in Kensington and Chelsea despite the median household income in the affluent borough being double Newham's own figures.

While other costs spiral due to inflation, there is some good news for those who have been recently bereaved. The cost of funerals is actually dropping according to Sunlife with average costs dropping by 3 per cent since 2020.

Legacy of Lives is also encouraging Londoner’s to shop around for the best deal when it comes to funerals with its research suggesting that only 17 per cent of Brits go to more than one place to get a quote. Looking at a few different places could land people with wildly different quotes. Rebecca Peach, Founder and CEO of Legacy of Lives said :

“The lottery of prices that people are facing is forcing thousands of families every year to pay more than they need to for funerals. Not only do prices vary massively depending on where you live but also which funeral director you choose. This data is shocking but not surprising, no one going through such an immense period of grief wants to spend hours shopping around and it is costing Brits dearly.”

The Legacy of Lives research is complimented by the recent Marie Curie and University of Loughborough report which shows that in 2019, 90,000 people in the UK died in poverty, accounting for nearly 15 per cent of all deaths that year. This report also highlighted that Manchester has the highest proportion of pensioners dying in poverty, with 32 per cent; Nottingham also fared poorly at 22 per cent.

"The most recent figures from SunLife show the cost of dying in 2021 was £8,864, made worse by the fact that 83 per cent of families only source one quote for the funeral they are planning and 20 per cent are surprised by the cost and options, also found by SunLife. The combination of these statistics paints a bleak picture for Brits with many forced into poverty or unable to afford a funeral.

Peach continued: “Planning a funeral for a loved one is an incredibly difficult process for many people, but it doesn’t need to be this way. Our mission is to provide an online resource that removes as much stress as possible from the process.

"We want to support people with valuable information and make fair, transparent pricing the industry norm, so that people can focus on the more personal aspects of saying goodbye.”

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