The cost of dying in the UK has skyrocketed to an all-time high as funeral prices hit £4,000. Data from SunLife’s Cost of Dying report found a 3.5 per cent increase in prices from last year, continuing a trend of rising funeral expenses across the UK.
The average price has risen 3.5 per cent over the past year, pushing it above a previous pre-pandemic high of £4,194. A basic funeral covers a cremation or burial, all funeral director fees, a mid-range coffin, one funeral limousine, a doctor, and a minister or celebrant.
The average price has risen 134 per cent since 2004, when financial services firm SunLife started carrying out an annual study on the cost of dying. SunLife says if costs had risen at the same rate as inflation over the past 21 years, the average figure would be 75 per cent higher at £3,211.
READ MORE Final date snow will hit UK this winter announced and it’s not far away
The company, which interviewed 100 funeral directors across the UK and around 1,500 people who recently organised a funeral, found the price of direct cremations rose the most last year. The cost increased by 6.6 per cent to £1,597, but it remains the cheapest option.
SunLife CEO Mark Screeton said: “It’s so important for people to talk more about their funerals, so that loved ones aren’t left to organise things with little idea about what the deceased would have wanted.” He went on and added: “A send-off doesn’t need to cost thousands.”
“A direct cremation with a DIY get-together afterwards might be the perfect way to say a personal goodbye to loved one,” Mr Screeton added. “That way, family and friends aren’t left to make difficult emotional and financial decisions once we have gone,” he concluded.
SunLife data also shows that as many as seven out of 10 regions saw funeral costs rise this year.