The average cost of a traditional attended funeral jumped 5.3% to £4,510 last year, research shows – the biggest annual increase in a decade forcing families to turn to loan sharks and crowdfunding
Cash-strapped bereaved families are turning to loan sharks or crowdfunding to pay for funerals, a report has revealed as one man shares how he’s been left with no choice but to crowdfund his own brother’s funeral.
The average cost of a traditional attended funeral jumped 5.3% to £4,510 last year, research shows – the biggest annual increase since 2016. Some 15% of people who have organised funerals in recent years reported experiencing notable financial concerns when paying, polling also found. And of those who were hit by difficulty, about one in ten (12%) have turned to crowdfunding – while 8% borrowed money from an unregulated lender such as a loan shark.
Rising prices have been driven by increased cremation and burial fees, higher coffin prices, and increased living costs, SunLife’s report found. It comes as a bereaved young man told how he is fundraising for his beloved brother’s funeral following his sudden death last month.
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Karl-Frederick Hughes, who aspired to go to university later this year, died aged just 20 after suffering a severe epileptic seizure and cardiac arrest. About £3,000 of a £10,000 target on GoFundMe has been raised for his funeral, burial and headstone. Karl-Frederick’s brother, Max Hughes, who lives with his teacher mum and 28-year-old sister in Sheffield, told the Mirror: “We live month-to-month, as most people do now.”
Sales consultant Max, 26, explained that his dad, who was the breadwinner, died a decade ago. Max said: “A normal working person should be able to afford to bury their loved one, especially when they’re 20 years-old. They shouldn’t have to have that worry on top of the suffering and pain.”
Speaking about his brother, he said: “If I was to sum Karl up in a group of words, I would say Karl is family and Karl is good and Karl’s caring and kind. And Karl had a real depth of character and he was hilarious. Anywhere he went he’d always want to brighten up a room.”
Max added: “This is the worst possible outcome of our lives at the moment. This is the worst case scenario that you think about as a parent and an older sibling… something happening to them [a younger sibling], them getting hurt, God forbid them dying. And now we have to figure out the money. We’ve got to figure out a eulogy, we’ve have to figure out a brochure for the funeral. We have to figure out where he gets buried.”
Max said the family also wants a wake to celebrate Karl-Frederick’s life. “The £10,000 is ballpark. We know the funeral is going to cost us at least £7,500,” he explained. “On top of that we have the grave stone, and that’s not including the wake at all. So the wake, the grave stone, also we’ve had to buy him what he’s going to wear forever now, basically.”
Lindesay Mace, co-manager of funeral poverty service Down to Earth, run by charity Quaker Social Action, said: “The distress caused by struggling to pay for a funeral should not be underestimated. We see the devastating effects on people’s health and their ability to grieve on a daily basis at our Down to Earth funeral costs support service. This financial hardship is reflected in growing demand for help, with our helpline seeing a 20% year-on-year increase in people contacting us in 2024/25.”
A simple attended funeral, including the core elements of a traditional service but with fewer add-ons such as a memorial and flowers, is now the most common choice in the UK, costing an average of £3,828 last year. When teamed with a memorial, catering, venue hire and flowers, total spending on the average funeral rose to £5,140, according to SunLife’s report.
Research was carried out between May and July last year, with 100 funeral directors and 1,500 individuals who had been involved in organising a funeral in the past four years – over a third of whom had done so in the previous 12 months. SunLife chief executive Mark Screeton said: “Funerals are a deeply personal experience, but our research shows that the cost of saying goodbye continues to rise faster than some families can afford.”
