Inflation hits UK funeral costs as prices rise for first time since pandemic

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The cost of a funeral is increasing in the UK after falling for two years, as inflation bites and mourners return to more traditional send-offs after the lifting of pandemic restrictions.

According to SunLife, a life insurance and funeral cover provider, the average cost of a basic funeral in the UK is now £4,141, up from £3,953 the previous year.

The total cost of a more traditional package, which includes a funeral, professional fees and send-off costs — such as catering and flowers — has also reached a record high of £9,658. Professional fees — which include hiring a professional to administer the estate — and send-off costs average £2,749 and £2,768, respectively.

Since the social distancing restrictions put in place due to the Covid-19 pandemic have been lifted, more people are hiring venues and catering services. Flowers and orders of service cards are the most popular additional items.

But the cost of living crisis is hampering people’s ability to spend. In a SunLife survey, 44 per cent of 1,522 people who had organised a funeral in the past four years said it had led to them “cutting back on the service, reduc[ing] personal savings, applying for government funding or [experiencing] increased stress”.

At the same time, inflation has driven up costs for funeral homes and their customers, with one director telling SunLife that the price of coffins has tripled. Overall, funeral costs have spiralled by 126 per cent since SunLife began tracking them 20 years ago, 54 per cent higher than the rate of inflation.

Perhaps as a response, cheaper “direct” cremations — when the deceased is taken straight to a crematorium without a funeral — have grown in popularity, according to SunLife. Costing an average of £1,498, they are used in nearly one in five deaths.

Funeral directors say the numbers of direct burials, when the deceased is taken straight to the burial site, have also grown. They cost an average of £1,657 last year.

Meanwhile, the number of public health burials — so-called pauper’s funerals — which are arranged by the local councils for people who have died without relatives or the means to pay, are on the rise, according to funeral directors polled by SunLife.

The rising costs come despite 28 of 100 funeral directors interviewed by SunLife saying they had lowered their prices in response to a 2021 Competition and Markets Authority directive that funeral directors and crematorium operators must make prices clear for customers or risk court action.