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Tag: Cost and Money

This tag pulls together clear, real-world pieces about the cost of funerals, cremation, scattering and memorials — what families actually spend, how prices vary by region, and where the value (or the pitfalls) tend to be. Expect readable breakdowns of...

What Will Funerals Look Like in 2036? Seven Possible Futures

The Seven Futures of Funerals: A Glimpse into 2036

What follows isn’t market research. It isn’t based on AI modelling, demographic projections or hours spent staring at spreadsheets trying to extrapolate trends into colourful graphs. It’s based on conversations, joining up dots and a healthy sprinkle of imagination. In other words, it’s the professional equivalent of licking your finger and sticking it in the […]

How Direct Cremation Is Changing the Funeral Sector

A Fault Line Is Forming The Funeral Sector Is Changing, and Things Are Starting to Crack The old equilibrium The plates are shifting in the funeral sector, and I don’t think they are shifting back. Ask me ten years ago whether a crematorium would stock my memorial items and the answer would almost always have […]

MoneySuperMarket, Martin Lewis and the Question of Where Brits Want Their Ashes Scattered

MoneySuperMarket, Martin Lewis and the Question of Where Brits Want Their Ashes Scattered Confession first. I do like Martin Lewis. Or rather, what Martin Lewis represents. MoneySuperMarket, at its best, feels as though it’s on the side of the average person in the street. Yes, it exists to sell financial products — insurance very much […]

The Value of Gruesome Gold

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The Value of Gruesome Gold: What Happens to Gold Teeth After Cremation? “Can you take it with you?” — in this case, apparently yes, but not in the way you might think. Every now and then, the question arises — what happens to the gold in someone’s teeth after cremation?It’s one of those slightly ghoulish […]

Scattering Ashes at Sea in Japan – Without the Bereaved

A Growing Trend: Sea Scattering Without the Bereaved in Japan I love writing articles about Japanese ashes culture for a number of reason: They have a cremation , they are fairly isolated and separated at least from western culture in this respect, they are not really forced to comply with any religious doctrine. So, when […]

What are the Costs in the UK for Burying Ashes in a Family Grave Plot? 2025

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Updated Guide: Costs for Burying Ashes in a Family Grave Plot (UK, 2024–2025) Summary of Observed Ranges Lowest / rural / existing grave: ~ £100 (for the interment only) Reassured More common / mid-range: ~ £250–£500+ London Borough of Barking and Dagenham+3Westmorland and Furness Council+3Worcester Cemeteries+3 Higher / premium / urban cemeteries / full lease […]

Why do so many Local Authority Crematoria look so down at heal?

Public Private Partnership in the Funeral world – An Oxymoron? Why do so many crematoria look so down at heal? In many local authorities there has been a complete lack of investment in their crematoria. As a consequence some families are not getting quality or good value funerals plus there is higher air pollution with […]

Council ponders the profit from a Columbarium

What should a council charge someone for a niche in their Columbarium? An interesting question, the Henley Standard reported on this giving us a rare insist into the machinations of a local authority in such matters. The town council has spent around £90,000 to fix up and convert a disused non-conformist chapel into a columbarium […]

Cremation Ashes as a Marketing Ploy

Nothing new in the world they say. Well perhaps, but this is certainly different. There is a famous restaurant in the Las Vegas called the Heart Attack Grill. Its whole method of promotion is entirely paradoxical. It is famous for telling you that their food is very very bad for you. They are in the […]

How much for losing ashes?! Court decision on the value of ashes

Costs, liability and compensation when cremated remains go missing We often ponder the value of ashes: to some they are worthless to others the most precious item on the planet, in previous posts we have considered their worth in monetary terms. Well in a recent case in the town of Mobile – a port city […]

Can you use a funeral plan to tell your family what to do with your ashes?

About 1.3 million mortality-minded Brits have paid for their funerals ahead of time using some form of pre-paid funeral plan. If you’re planning to join them, you might be wondering whether your plan can be used to sort out what will happen to your ashes at the same time. The (inconvenient) answer is: kind of. […]

Are councils refusing to hand over ashes in the cases of ‘pauper funerals’?

Controversial claims that local authorities limit access to cremated remains for low-income families Right, a controversial subject. Let’s us attempt to set out the stall in a nonpartisan fashion. A Pauper Funeral is an old-fashioned/emotive term for funerals where the local authority are required to step in as the family are either unwilling or unable […]

Xining in China’s Qinghai province is to subsidise the Scattering Ashes

Xining in China’s Qinghai Province to Subsidise Scattering Ashes In an effort to address land usage concerns, Xining, located in the northwest part of China’s Qinghai province, has announced a new initiative to subsidise the scattering of ashes. Starting from the first of June this year, the local authorities will offer financial support to those […]

What do the public think of Crematoria – Part 1

We are running an on-going survey on the website asking members of the public what they think of crematoria. We understand that those offering cremation services are in a difficult position when wanting feedback on what they provide – they can hardly stand outside with a clipboard. Over three posts we will shedding light on some […]

Ashes are Priceless. Well Truman Capotes aren’t !

The Curious Case of Truman Capote’s Ashes: Morality, Legality and the Market for Celebrity Remains The world of ashes always throws curve balls. People often say that the cremated remains of a person are priceless — and in a sense they’re right. Ashes can’t be replaced; they can be the most sentimental item in the […]

Council Policy Too Blunt? No — Burial Charge Mistake

Non-Resident Burial Fee Error and Authority Apology Coping with the death of a loved one is difficult at the best of times and small injustices can become magnified many times over, here we have the case of a lady from Pontypool in Wales, who was organising the burial of her disabled brother’s ashes and because […]

Variation in cremation cost across the UK 2016

Why Cremation Prices Differ Significantly Between Regions and Providers Every year crematoria are getting more expensive and there is now a big difference between the top and the bottom. From the lowest price is from a crematoria run by the a local authority – Belfast City council, where the cost is £364 the highest is a private […]

charges over ashes scattering wakefield crem

Charging for Families to Witness a Scattering Ceremony

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Local Authorities are often at the sharp end of public anger when it comes to bereavement services, in extreme cases like the baby ashes scandal at Morten Hall or issues around removal of memorial items from a grave plot. I tend not to be partisan on behalf of the public, councils often have a difficult […]

Cost and Meaning: Dying Matters – Dying Matters Week May 2016

Dying Matters I was speaking to funeral director the other day. I was discussing with him changes in attitudes today’s funerals. He was bemoaning by the ring round society: “I have got Wiggins and Son on the other line and they can do a bunch of flowers for fifty quid less than you, can you […]

What is the price of ashes?

Understanding the Price of Ashes: Value, Culture and Controversy The Mortonhall scandal in Edinburgh was dreadful, the practice where the crematoria did not return or offer to return stillborn or new-born babies ashes to the parents after cremation, with the reason that there was nothing to return, when in many instances this was untrue and […]

Is the choice of cremation mainly a matter of economics and location?

British Columbia community considers a columbarium to house cremated remains It is being reported the town of Cowichan, near Vancouver in British Columbia Canada, is planning to have a columbarium built to house the ashes of if its residents. Mayor Forrest said “In discussions last year, we had a public meeting and people were saying, […]

Unclaimed dead in Los Angeles – a service for the interment of ashes

How Los Angeles handles burial of unclaimed cremated remains Every year the city of Los Angeles buries it’s unclaimed dead. In December 2014 those who deceased in 2011 were laid to rest. Nothing unusual in that, all municipalities have such arrangements. What is interesting is the numbers involved. In 2011 the city cremated over 1,800 […]

Couple steal their own son’s ashes

Parents charged after removing their son’s cremated remains from burial This is a bit different and comes from Bridgeport in Connecticut in the US. The couple in question tragically lost their son, when they came to collect their sons ashes and pay the remainder of the funeral directors fees. However when left unattended, they took […]

Ashes dumped in Hampshire cemetery: fee dodging?

Ashes Dumped in Hampshire Cemetery Amid Fee Dispute The Vicar of the charming village of Lyndhurst in Hampshire has got hot under the collar. The Rev Dr James Bruce spoke out after it was revealed that the ashes, of what appeared several people, had been tipped onto the grass at the graveyard near his church. […]

Local Authority price rise – statistics used unfairly

When I saw the headline 357% hike in cost to bereaved in Hyndburn the the Lancashire Telegraph I reached for my batman cape, sharpen my pencil and prepared to charge into battle, then after realising I had mixed too many metaphors thought I had better look a bit deeper. Thankfully I did not have look […]

The cost of cremation in the UK 2013

We have had a look at the Cremation Society of Great Britain figures for the cost of cremation in the United Kingdom, are the headlines. Countries in the UK in order of cost: Most expensive England; Scotland; Wales with the least expensive being Northern Ireland. In England there is unsurprisingly a rough north south divide […]

Some Dutch Authorities are ripping people off for Scattering Ashes

Firstly, in the Netherlands, you can’t simply scatter ashes wherever you choose. Ashes must be scattered in a designated place, and the trouble is that there appears to be a huge disparity in what councils charge for the privilege. This issue was reported by Dutch News, following an investigation by the consumer affairs television programme […]

Austerity measures impacting grieving families: Scottish crematoria shutting on a Saturday and Sunday

Reduced weekend opening times and how it affects funeral arrangements The article below from the Perthshire Advertiser whilst seemingly local, throws up some very interesting questions around bereavement services, their cost and availability. Perth Council have decided to retain ownership of their crematoria. A move welcomed by local funeral directors on the grounds that it […]

What happens to all the metal recovered from a cremated ashes?

What happens to all the metal recovered from cremated ashes? Well I think this is a good news story, the answer is it is recovered and recycled. In fact it raises a heck of a lot of money for charity! It turns out that Institute of Cemetery and Crematoria Management have got about 130 crematoria […]

Funeral Costs — Cremation, Burial and Rising Expenses

Understanding Funeral Costs and What Families Are Paying in the UK The cost of a funeral is a big worry for many families caught between their wish to give the correct level of reverence and affordability, it seems this is worse when people don’t leave any wishes and loved ones ere on the more expensive side. There […]