More Scots struggling to pay loved ones' funeral costs, say CAS

A rising number of people in Scotland are struggling to pay for the funerals of their loved ones.

A Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) report said the number of people asking for help with funeral costs had risen by 35% from 2014.

The report said that the basic cost of funerals had risen in all but two local authorities, and on average has increased by 10% from 2014.

It said there is a "postcode lottery" when it comes to funeral costs.

All of Scotland's 32 local authorities provided CAS with up-to-date figures on their burial and cremation charges. On average, a burial in Scotland now costs £1,273.

Council funeral charges have been rising by an average of 7% since 2004.

'Huge disparities'

The rise from 2014-15 was 10%, but the hike in prices was more pronounced in some parts of the country than others.

Moray and South Lanarkshire have not seen any rise in their prices at all, while Aberdeenshire has increased the cost of a burial by 42% since 2014. That translates to a £420 rise on the cost to families planning a funeral.

CAS said that while they understood that the cost of land can vary from council to council, they could see "no reasonable argument" for the cost of preparing a grave, or interment price, varying so much.

The figures showed that cremations are significantly cheaper than burials - on average a cremation in 2015 costs £601, or 50% less than a burial. However, this also represented a 5% increase from 2014, and CAS said it was "a difficult amount for many families to find, especially if the bereavement is sudden."

CAS spokesman Fraser Sutherland said the results showed there were still "huge disparities" in funeral costs across councils.

He highlighted the fact that the burial costs in East Dunbartonshire are £1,900 higher than in East Renfrewshire, which is just a few miles away.

For burials, the most expensive council was East Dunbartonshire at £2,785, and the cheapest the Western Isles at £694 - a variation of £2,091.

Case Study:

A Citizen Advice Bureau in the West of Scotland has a report of a client whose mother, father and sister all died within six months.

The client is being threatened with small claims proceedings to recover £690 in outstanding funeral costs - although they say that the family have given the undertaker about £15,000 so far.

CAS said that they had seen a "massive increase" in the number of people coming in to ask for advice because they could not pay "huge" funeral costs. It said this was "a major problem" that needed to be addressed urgently.

The report emphasised that the fees mentioned within it were only the basic part of the cost of a funeral.

Payments to funeral directors, which include the cost of a coffin, care and treatment of the deceased, and transfer of the body can add anything from £2,000 to £4,000, and that is before flowers, obituary notices, catering at a wake and memorial headstones have been counted.

CAS said a funeral in Scotland can cost somewhere between £2,600 and £8,000 depending on the service chosen - and where you live.