Councils in England and Wales are abdicating their legal responsibility to provide so-called “pauper’s funerals,” often turning away low-income families who cannot afford to pay for relatives to be buried or cremated, according to Quaker Social Action.
The anti-poverty charity said its “mystery shopping” investigation into 40 local authorities’ approach to public health funerals in urban areas of the UK found 10 did not carry out their legal duty, and two-thirds did not follow government guidance.
Under the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984, councils in England and Wales are required to provide public health funerals to bury or cremate the body of anyone who has died alone in poverty, or whose relatives cannot afford a funeral.
However, 14 authorities had no information on public health funerals on their website, while more than half of those that did offered incorrect or misleading information. Phone calls to councils were often met with incorrect or inappropriate advice.
“It can be a real battle to get a local authority to carry out its legal duty by arranging and paying for a funeral, where this is needed,” said Lindesay Mace, manager of Quaker Social Action’s Down to Earth funeral advice service.
She added: “It raises concerns that in some cases councils are abdicating their duty, and if the snapshot we have taken is indicative of wider practice then it means people who need help are falling through the cracks and quite probably being pushed into debt they cannot manage.”
Of the 40 councils whose funeral service was audited the five top-scoring were Nottingham, Birmingham, and the London boroughs of Haringey, Hackney, and Hammersmith & Fulham. The five worst scoring councils were the London boroughs of Islington, Camden, Southwark, Bromley, and Sutton.
There are thousands of public health funerals every year, normally basic ceremonies without flowers or viewings. Burials can be in unmarked or “common” graves, often shared with other people.
Quaker Social Action cited the case of Samantha, who spent weeks battling Barnsley council trying to arrange a public health funeral for her estranged brother Kevin after she realised she could not afford to pay the £2,000 cost of a funeral without going into unmanageable debt.
Barnsley had no contact details for public health funerals on its website, and turned Samantha down twice before a Down to Earth adviser, acting on her behalf, persuaded the council it was breaching the law. “We were being passed from pillar to post. People kept giving me different numbers and I was going round in circles – I wanted to give up,” said Samantha.
Paul Golding, a Down to Earth volunteer who carried out some mystery shopping visits, said he was “astonished” by the lack of compassion, knowledge and unwillingness to help of many of the councils he contacted.
“While some staff members were kind and offered condolences, there was also a litany of inappropriate comments. One person told me that after the cremation ‘the remains are thrown in a peace garden’ and another scoffed when I asked if it would be a burial or a cremation, indicating it was ridiculous even to suggest a burial,” he said.
Quaker Social Action said government guidance introduced in September 2020 did little to stop councils putting up barriers designed to turn people away, and lacked detail about what information on public funerals a council should provide to the public.
Julie Dunk, chief executive of the Institute of Cemetery and Crematorium Management, said: “We have to do better, and I would urge local authority senior managers and elected members to understand their statutory role and ensure that improvements are made in enabling bereaved people to receive the right support when they need it.”
