“A new report on funeral poverty has found funeral director and local authority costs should be more consistent and bereavement support more widely available.

The report by John Birrell, chair of the Scottish Working Group on Funeral Poverty, and Citizens Advice Scotland, highlighted factors that contribute to funeral poverty and called on the UK and Scottish Governments, the funeral industry, local authorities and others, to take action.

The independent report’s recommendations include:

• Ensuring social security funeral payments meet the real costs of a funeral
• Parity in burial and cremation charges charged by local authorities
• Licensing of funeral directors
• Encouraging people to talk about their own funeral wishes with their families
• A new national ‘Scottish Funeral Bond’ to standardise costs and allow more people to save for their own funeral”

More on this can be found here.