Local insurer exposes Council funeral charges

Wilmslow-based insurance company Royal London has exposed Cheshire East Council for charging bereaved families to reclaim their relative’s ashes after public health funerals.

A public health funeral is arranged by the local authority when the family of the deceased is either unable or unwilling to arrange and pay for a funeral, or when the deceased has no traceable family.

Royal London – which is set to relocate to Alderley Park this year – wants the law changed on public health funerals so that ashes can be returned to families free of charge.

Following a series of Freedom of Information requests, the firm found that 18 councils charge families to reclaim relatives ashes after public health funerals, 21 do not return ashes at all and 14 do not even allow families to attend the funeral.

Louise Eaton-Terry, funeral cost expert at Royal London, said: “It’s incredibly sad when bereaved families have no choice but to seek a public health funeral. But when some families are refused the ashes of their loved ones or are not even allowed to attend the funeral, it is clear that they are being treated unfairly.

“It’s about time the system was overhauled, and we’re calling for legislation on minimum standards for public health funerals to ensure everyone can, at the very least, attend a funeral and collect their loved one’s ashes.”

Royal London found that the average cost of a public health funeral to councils in 2018-19 was £1,507 – with 29 per cent taken on because bereaved families couldn’t afford to pay for the funeral.

Cheshire East Council held eight public health funerals in 2019, covering the associated costs – returning the ashes to six families at a charge of £50. Families are allowed to attend but not all choose to recover the ashes, and in some cases there is no family to return the ashes to.

A CEC spokesman said: “The council seeks to ensure that any resident of the borough receives a dignified funeral, whatever their circumstances. Where there are no identifiable relatives and no estate, the council will undertake a public health funeral using a nominated funeral director whose costs will be met by the council.

“Where there are relatives who wish to retain the ashes of the deceased following a public health funeral, a charge of £50 is made by the crematorium to cover the costs of providing a casket and the required documentation. This is the case with all cremations in the borough. In 2019, the council carried out eight public health funerals. The ashes were returned from six of those cremations and relatives did not raise any objection to the fee charged.”

Cheshire West and Chester Council does return the ashes from public health funerals to families free of charge, and allows families to attend the funeral.

Of the 400 councils Royal London approached, 17 failed to respond to the Freedom of Information request.