LONDON, U.K. - Soaring funeral prices and the breakdown of families mean about 21,000 pensioners die every year without the money for funeral bills and with no relatives willing or able to pay.Their funerals are paid for by councils, many of which have admitted they inter the bodies in communal plots or cremate them to save costs.
At least 100,000 pensioners who died penniless and alone have been buried in paupers' graves in the past five years, a charity revealed yesterday.
Such paupers' mass graves conjure an image of Dickensian poverty. But this has become the reality for some of the 40,000 people a year in Britain who receive state-funded funerals — of According to councils, this figure has been rising since the recession. And it is likely only to keep increasing as Britain's population gets older, warns the charity Anchor, which compiled the figures.- The group, England's largest not-for-profit housing and care provider, is calling on the government to appoint a "Minister for Older People" to address this and other issues affecting the elderly.
- Funeral costs have doubled in the past ten years, meaning families can now expect to pay a minimum of £2,000, but the cost can be far higher. If a person made no previous financial arrangements and their family is unwilling or unable to pay, legislation means their local council must pick up the bill.
- It pays for a simple ceremony, followed by a cremation or burial.
- The average cost of such a "public health funeral" is about £900, according to the Local Government Association
- The council is entitled to recover costs from the estate of the deceased, if they had any property or assets.
- Councils have reported an increase in the number of people who die with no estate or known relatives. More than half of authorities said they had also seen a rise in the number of families unable to contribute to the costs of a funeral for relatives over the past three years since the recession.
- The South East has seen a 14 per cent increase in the number of council-paid funerals in the last five years, with the East Midlands showing an 8 per cent rise.
The majority of these funerals — more than three-quarters — were for men, councils reported...which about 21,000 are pensioners.Chief executive Jane Ashcroft said: "These sad figures speak for themselves. Close to 40,000 people, mostly elderly, are dying around us with no family or friends nearby to care for them every year."
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