Unexpected funeral expenses can put a heavy financial burden on families and ongoing concerns over the cost of living are prompting people to look for low-cost funeral arrangements.
Insurer SunLife’s 2024 Cost of Dying report shows a return to the long-term upward trend in funeral costs, with the price of a basic funeral increasing to £4,141.
Continuing inflation may push these prices higher - SunLife’s annual report, first published in 2014, has tracked a 126% increase in funeral costs in that period.
Against this background, families may be thinking about how much they will be able to spend if they or a loved one were to die. Here are some suggestions for how you can plan a low-cost funeral.
Paying in advance
A pre-paid funeral plan can help to ease the pressure on your family to find the money to pay funeral costs. By paying in advance for the funeral director services included in your plan, financial pressures on your loved ones could be significantly reduced.
Golden Charter funeral plans also protect against any increases in the cost of the funeral director services included in your plan, as well as including a built-in allowance towards third-party costs like fees for burial or cremation and officiants.
Spending less
According to SunLife, 37% of survey respondents said they wanted their family to spend as little as possible on their send-off. However, sometimes family members feel that they should do the ‘right thing’, leading to them spending more than their loved one would have wanted. A pre-paid funeral plan puts you in control of how much you spend.
The advice to families that are keen to keep funeral costs down is to:
● Cut back on limousines, which can cost over £200 each ● Don’t print orders of service ● Use social media for funeral announcements ● Cut back on flowers
Cremation vs Burial
Overall, cremation is the most cost-effective funeral option. According to SunLife, the average price for a funeral including a cremation was £3,795 in 2023, compared with £5,077 for a funeral including a burial. Golden Charter has five funeral plans to choose from, with options for both cremation and burial. Whatever type of service or send-off you’d like, you can pick the plan that best suits your needs and budget.
The most stripped back end-of-life option, and one that we offer at Golden Charter, is direct cremation. With SunLife reporting an average cost of £1,498, savings of up to £2,500 help to explain the rising popularity of unattended cremations. In 2023, almost 20% of all cremations were direct cremations, compared to just 3% back in 2019.
Costs are lower for direct cremations because they don’t involve a funeral service. The deceased is taken directly to the crematorium at a time determined by the funeral director. A simple coffin is used, and the additional expense associated with a funeral ceremony - cars, flowers, an order of service and a funeral celebrant - are avoided.
Shopping around
Getting in touch with several funeral directors to compare costs immediately after a bereavement can be overwhelming. But asking for quotes before committing to a funeral director can help to keep costs down. Regulation has made it easier to make comparisons. It is now mandatory for funeral directors to display a standardised price list at their premises and online. This list should include:
● The headline price of a funeral ● The price of the individual items comprising the funeral ● The price of certain additional products and services
With this regulation in place, it should now be easier than ever for people to plan a low-cost funeral. According to SunLife, 40% of the people surveyed compared prices when they were organising a funeral. Of this group, 90% said they found it easy to do so.
