Families falling short of funeral funds

It is not surprising that at the same time we are seeing consumer confidence erode in the U.S.A. that we are also finding some statistical data to tell us that funeral client families are more often coming up short with funding to pay their Death Care obligations.  Statistics are somewhat difficult to find on this subject as every state, and sometimes even counties and cities, has a different way of supporting those who cannot pay for Death Care services.

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However, a recent article in Funeral Service Times of Great Britain put forward the fact that refusals for Death Care assistance in Great Britain have risen by over 36% in the past 4 years.  The program works according to this article (you may find a paywall here) whereby the British government “provides financial help towards funeral costs for people on certain benefits, including Universal Credit and Income Support. Applications may be refused if the claimant is not in receipt of a qualifying benefit, if another family member is considered responsible, or if the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) determines that funds are available elsewhere.”

Through a freedom of information request of the British government, GoFundMe found out that the number of refusals has increased, which also leads me to believe that the number of requests has also increased.

The article also stated, “GoFundMe has reported a surge in memorial fundraising. The number of donors to UK (United Kingdom) memorial fundraisers rose by around 25% between 2022 and 2024, while the average donation increased by about 11% year-on-year. The platform said 2025 is on track to record the highest levels of giving since the pandemic.”

The article also pointed out that the average cost of a funeral in Great Britain has risen to US $ 5,294 and that the average request for assistance is for a shortfall of US $ 2,912.  It is also pointed out that the average award given out in the Funeral Expense Payment request is US $ 1,450. . . . about half of what applicants are asking for.

Related Article — U.S. consumer confidence tanks in November as more Americans see financial pain ahead.  Yahoo Finance.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take:  A couple of things come to mind as I analyze this article.  First of all, through my work with Funeral Director Daily and readers in all English speaking countries, I have come to realize that the business of Death Care is pretty universal in all of these developed countries — especially the ones where Funeral Director Daily has a number of subscribers such as the US, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand.

I also realize that the economies of the world seem to operate in the same cyclical up-and-down economic situation.

That leads me to believe that if Great Britain is seeing an increase in people not having the means to pay for Death Care obligations, that same phenomena is probably happening in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States.

If that is the case and you are going to be serving more and more families who have this limiting “financial depth” situation you need to be able to point them in a direction that can help them so you can get paid and more importantly so that they can get this obligation out from under their lives.

I would suggest that you take a look at the family funeral home designed and owned crowdfunding site Treasured Memories Community Funding.  This company, that you can access information on here, can not only help your Death Care clients raise funds but it can also be used to help non-profits and others in your trade area raise funds for all kinds of great endeavors. . . . and like I said, it is family-funeral home owned, operated, and developed.

Final Thought — This article is a good article on how family poverty in America was designated and the thought process and way of defining  that designation from the 1963 reasoning about how it was defined that may no longer may be applicable.  For instance did you know the definition of how the “U.S. Poverty Line” is calculated?  Here is the definition — “The U.S. poverty line is calculated at three times the minimum food diet in 1963, adjusted for inflation”.

The author makes the point that with all of the other changes in society in the past 62 years, maybe we should have a different definition of how “family poverty” is defined.  I found it interesting to read and thought provoking and thought today’s subject matter was as good a place as any to insert it for your knowledge.

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