Why funeral need to be fairer

Last year the price of funeral roseas quickly as house prices. The average price for a basic funeral is now £3,897. Funeral costs have soared at the same time as the safety net for bereaved people on low incomes has shrunk. This means too many people are struggling to afford a decent send off for someone they love.

What about the state safety net?
The funeral grant exists for some people on a qualifying benefit who wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford a funeral. But it was capped by the government 14 years ago and now only covers around 35% of the overall cost of an averagefuneral. So people are left with huge unmanageable debts. These debts often get in the way of a person’s ability to grieve.


What can we do about it?

Funeral poverty has been ignored for too long. We need your help to end the silence and stop so many people being sold funerals they can’t afford.

Quaker Social Action has launched the Fair Funerals campaign to:

  • Educate people about their choices so they can avoid funeral poverty
  • Influence government to do more for people in funeral poverty
  • Work with the funeral industry to do more for people on low incomes

The Fair Funerals pledge is part of the Fair Funerals campaign.
How the pledge works
When people are bereaved, they don’t make savvy consumers. Often funeral directors don’t provide clear, comparable information about prices and won’t talk openly about money. There are also huge differences in the prices they charge.

Without clear comparable prices, people aren’t able to find a funeral within their budget.

The pledge is a FREE and VOLUNTARY way for funeral directors to address this problem. It asks them to provide clear comparable prices and to talk openly about money.

Funeral directors who sign the pledge are committing:

Why we need your help
Funeral directors are very interested by what people in their communities think – so you’re in the best position to influence the way they run their business.

If the pledge is going to make a big impact for people struggling to afford a funeral, we need your help.

We’re asking you to contact your funeral director and talk to them about signing the pledge.

How to take action

With a bit of effort you can make a big difference to local people struggling with expensive, confusing funeral costs.

Check who in your area has signed:

Put your postcode into our interactive map to see which companies have already signed:
fairfuneralscampaign.org.uk/map

Bring people in

  • Find friends, neighbours and colleagues who can help you take action. The more people you can bring in, the more impact you can have!
  • Ask organisations or groups you’re in touch with to help take action on the pledge.
  • Speak to people in your community aboutthe pledge and how they can find a funeral within their budget.

Speak to local funeral directors

  • Write to local funeral director asking them to sign the pledge. Get others to write letters. You can download a sample letter here: fairfuneralscampaign.org.uk/content/ask-my-funeral-director-sign
  • Follow the letter up with a phone call.
  • Celebrate funeral directors that sign the pledge by announcing it on your website, over social media, in your newsletter, etc. This will encourage others to follow suit.
  • Establish an ongoing contact at your funeral directors to see how they’re getting on implementing the pledge.

Let us know
Tell us about what you’ve done and how funeral directors reacted. Have you learned anything? What success have you had?

We’ll help you celebrate on our website and across social media. Let us know by emailing us at

Keep up the pressure
If you want to make sure funeral directors are sticking to the pledge, carry out some mystery shopping. We encourage people to do this every 6-12 months.

Tweet about the Fair Funerals pledge!
Follow twitter.com/endfuneralpov
Use the hashtag#fairfunerals

Any problems?
Get in touch, we’re happy to offer advice. Email call 0208 983 5051.

Tips| Talking to funeral directors

Most funeral directors we approach are very positive about the Fair Funerals pledge. The aim of the pledge is not to criticise funeral directors, but to help people find a funeral they can afford.

A strength of the pledge campaign is that our ‘ask’ to the industry is so reasonable. So we encourage you to be positive and reasonable in your conversations with funeral directors.

What to say to funeral directors

  • On behalf of our community, we would like to work with local funeral directors to make affordable options and transparent prices more freely available to people on low incomes.
  • We recognise there is an inescapable cost attached to a funeral and funeral directors have to make a profit, but we want to help people find a funeral they can afford.
  • When people are bereaved they can struggle to take in information and make decisions. That’s why transparent, comparable information on prices is so important.
  • There are many brilliant funeral directors already doing great things to help people afford funerals. We want to celebrate these practices and make them more common.
  • The pledge benefits both bereaved customers and the funeral industry. It benefits funeral directors because it gives a boost to their reputation and public profile. This is why [mention local funeral directors who’ve already pledged] have already signed up.

campaign by east London anti-poverty charityQuaker Social Action.