Funeral Homes Overcharging, Watchdog Says, But Pandemic Stops CMA Investigation

An investigation launched by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has found that U.K. consumers burying a loved one are being overcharged by funeral homes.

The investigation discovered the average consumer is being overcharged around £400 for funeral costs, but the CMA investigation was halted following the coronavirus crisis, The Guardian reported.

More than 600,000 funerals take place annually in the U.K., according to Today’s Will and Probate, and vulnerable family members may face pressure while grieving, making it difficult to explore funeral options.

Bereaved family members could be taken advantage of during their time of stress and grief. 

The CMA says that the actual overcharged amount could be higher than £400. This estimate may be been significantly minimised.

The watchdog’s investigation into funeral cost overcharges also discovered certain funeral directors have been arranging “unacceptably low levels of care of the deceased,” according to The Guardian.

The CMA had been looking into the steps needed to intervene on excess funeral costs, but the COVID-19 pandemic strained the efforts. The CMA was seeking potential measures such as introducing price caps. 

The U.K.’s funeral industry makes around £2 billion annually, the Daily Mail reported, but the CMA said the funeral sector is not operating in the best interest of consumers.

Reforms may need to be put in place to remedy problems in the funeral sector, but introducing such reforms during a national emergency was not the right time. 

The strictest stages of the coronavirus pandemic guidelines altered the way funerals ran, the CMA’s Martin Coleman told the Daily Mail.

Restrictions caused traditional funeral services to halt, and guidelines dictated that funerals had a maximum of 30 attendees.

The CMA initiated its examination of the funeral sector in March 2019. The findings have shown funeral directors charged increased fees at a rate higher than inflation for over a decade.  

On top of finding that the average overcharge for funeral costs was conservatively £400, the investigation found that evaluating inflation since 2006, the average 2019 funeral costs should have been £480 or £630 lower, contingent on the inflation measure used, according to The Guardian. 

According to the CMA, the funeral sector’s two biggest firms Co-op and Dignity, are commonly much more expensive than most small, family-owned, funeral businesses in the U.K., The Guardian reported 

In the last decade, U.K. funeral costs have increased by 62%, according to SunLife’s most recent report. The report showed that the average funeral costs were up 3.4% from the previous year, totalling around £4,417.

A look back at SunLife’s first research on funeral costs in 2004 shows that the average cost has increased by 130%.

The CMA also has revealed that the bodies of the deceased have allegedly been receiving inadequate standards of care in some funeral directors’ businesses, according to the Daily Mail.  

The CMA’s short-term goals for improving the funeral sector may start with funeral directors being required to show transparent evidence of the prices of services.

Family members will be able to make the right choices according to clearer guidelines from funeral directors, the Daily Mail reported. 

“Given the inherently distressing circumstances in which people arrange a funeral, we want to make sure they can be confident they are not being overcharged and that their loved one is cared for properly,” Coleman said, according to the Daily Mail. “The later stages of the investigation have been conducted in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, which has caused a tragic increase in death rates and has materially changed how funerals are carried out. This has had a big impact on how far we can immediately address some of the issues. But there are remedies that are feasible and effective in the short term.”

Do you think the CMA will eventually stop some funeral directors from overcharging? Should funeral costs be closely regulated? Let us know in the comments.

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