members card iconSign in ?

Fairness pledge to tackle funeral poverty

Image of Funerals-generic-store-finder-image.jpg for Fairness pledge to tackle funeral poverty

Funeral homes run by Lincolnshire Co-op have joined the national campaign to tackle funeral poverty and pledged to provide a fair deal for grieving people on low incomes.

Funeral poverty exists when the cost of a funeral is beyond a person’s ability to pay. One in seven people now experience serious financial difficulty when paying for a funeral.

Buying a funeral can be expensive and confusing. Bereaved people don’t make savvy consumers, and we can be very reluctant to have frank conversations about the cost of funerals. This can make it very difficult for grieving people to find a funeral within their budget.

Lincolnshire Co-op has signed up to the Fair Funerals pledge to help tackle this problem. It means the Society agrees to the following:

1. To recognise that funerals can be expensive and many people struggle with the cost.
2. To help people to find funerals that are within their means.
3. To be open about its most affordable options – including third party costs – in initial conversations, within price lists and on its website.

The pledge was launched by anti-poverty charity Quaker Social Action which supports people on low incomes struggling with funeral costs. Its Fair Funerals campaign is working with government, charities and funeral directors to tackle the growing problem of funeral poverty.

is working with government, charities and funeral directors to tackle the growing problem of funeral poverty.

Lincolnshire Co-op’s Head of Funeral Services David Dernley said: “We’re proud to have signed up to the pledge and do our bit to help tackle the growing issue of funeral poverty.

“We’re transparent with our pricing and are pleased to offer a simple funeral option. Though this option carries certain restrictions, it facilitates a dignified, respectful and more affordable funeral service, with the same high standards of care we’re known for.

“All our funeral directors, arrangers and managers are trained to discuss with clients their ability to meet the financial liabilities associated with the funeral they are arranging and, in cases of hardship, to provide the simple funeral option.”

Fair Funerals campaign manager Heather Kennedy said: “No one should have to go through the distress of not being able to afford a decent send-off for someone they love. But the fact is, because of the price of funerals and the lack of state support, funeral poverty is inevitable for a lot of people in our society. We launched the pledge to help grieving people find a funeral they can afford.

“We’re really pleased by the number of funeral directors who have risen to the challenge and signed up to the pledge. By signing up to the pledge, funeral directors are committing themselves to providing the information and choices that allow bereaved customers to make empowered decisions.”

Fair Funerals Strip Logo

cookie icon Our use of cookies

We use necessary cookies to make our site work. These cookies ensure our core functionality works, such as signing into your membership account and keeping our website secure.

We also use analytics cookies to help us make improvements to our website experience by evaluating how visitors use the site. You can manage these cookies by clicking the below button.


More information on this can be found on our cookies page and privacy policy.

cookie icon Manage my cookies

Necessary cookies

We use necessary cookies to enable core functionality on our website such as security, network management and for our membership area to work. You may choose to disable these by changing your browser settings, but this may affect how the website functions.

To help us continue to improve our website, we’d like to use Google Analytics cookies which will provide us with information on how you use the site. These cookies collect general behaviour information and doesn’t directly identify anyone. More information on how these cookies work can be found on our cookies page.

Confirm