Funeral poverty alliance

The Funeral Poverty Alliance is a network of over 50 organisations working against funeral poverty. 

The Alliance believes that society has a responsibility to ensure everyone has access to a meaningful, affordable funeral.

Members of the FPA work in collaboration to raise funeral poverty as a social justice and consumer issue with government and industry, and help people to avoid funeral poverty. 

QSA and the Funeral Poverty Alliance

Since the end of the Fair Funerals Campaign in 2018, Quaker Social Action has continued to advocate for change through our Down to Earth project, the only UK-wide advice service for people in financial need arranging a funeral.  QSA continues to focus its finite resources on strategic work to improve the experience of people who need to purchase a funeral, sharing stories and evidence from our ongoing front-line casework as we do so. 

2022 update

Since September 2021 the Competition and Markets Authority has made funeral price transparency - for which QSA has long campaigned - a legal requirement, but we continue to argue that funeral price caps and UK-wide statutory regulation of the industry are needed.  In 2022 we are researching consumer vulnerability in the funeral sector to identify what further action we can take to try and ensure recently bereaved people are as supported as possible when planning a funeral.  We are particularly focusing on financial vulnerability and circumstances where someone may struggle to afford funeral costs.  We have invited bereaved people who have organised a funeral within the last three years, and client-facing funeral professionals, to fill in surveys, and as at March 2022 we have received over 400 responses.

We also published a report, in 2021, on troubling practices by some local authorities in relation to their public health funeral duties, and we are following up on this work. 

All of this work is led by the Down to Earth team whose understanding of the issues is derived from their casework knowledge. We are also raising consumer awareness by sharing individuals’ stories in the media, and running funeral costs training for professionals.

By working together with the Funeral Poverty Alliance, our collective influence in working against the injustice of funeral poverty can reach much further.

If your organisation would like to join the Funeral Poverty Alliance, please fill out the form and we will be in touch.

SIGN UP TO THE FPA

Members of the Funeral Poverty Alliance include:

Resource
PDF icon FPA Terms of Reference