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Buy your funeral plan today and pay in January for peace of mind this Christmas. Click here for full T&Cs.
Two Together: Save £100!
Save £100 when you purchase two funeral plans together. Call us for more details.
Buy now, pay in January
Buy your funeral plan today and pay in January for peace of mind this Christmas. Click here for full T&Cs.
9 minute read
When anyone is organising a cremation, either proactively for themselves through a funeral plan, or for a loved one at short notice, one of the main things that they worry about is cremation costs.
In this article, we will clarify the subject of cremation prices, answering questions like, “how much do cremations cost?” and “what is the average cost of cremation in the UK?”. We will also help you to reduce your cremation expenses, by explaining which costs are compulsory, and which can be avoided.
Your cremation price depends on what type of cremation you want to organise. Do you want guests to be there, and, if so, how many? Or would you prefer it to be unattended? You can also take or leave many of the traditional formalities as you prefer. All of that will impact the final cremation cost you pay.
The SunLife Cost of Dying Report 2024 puts the average cost of a cremation ceremony at £3,795, with the more specific ‘direct cremation’ thought to cost on average £1,498. They also estimate the average cost of a funeral in the UK (across all kinds of cremations and burials) to be £4,141. Cremation is significantly cheaper as a form of funeral when compared to burial, which we will come to below.
The Guardian, following SunLife’s figures, points to a 126% increase in the cost of the average funeral in the UK between 2004 and 2024. Against a general consumer price inflation of 72% during the same period, it’s clear that funeral prices are rising faster than others, getting more expensive more quickly.
Let’s now break down some of those cremation costs.
There are different kinds of fees that relate to the cost of cremation: costs that we call either ‘compulsory’ or ‘avoidable’ depending on what they concern.
Compulsory costs are those which apply to every funeral, no matter what kind it is, where avoidable costs could be skipped depending on the preference of the person organising the funeral. Below are two tables which show some of the average costs for expenses in these two categories.*
| Service | Fee |
|---|---|
| Urgent-collection fee | ~£250 |
| Oversized / ‘bariatric’ coffin | ~£250 |
(The funeral director used in each funeral may cause these prices to vary)
| Catering (such as for a wake) | £476 |
| Funeral notice | £93 |
| Order sheets | £111 |
| Flowers | £220 |
| Limo hire | £402 |
| Venue hire | £347 |
If you’d like to read about some of these compulsory and avoidable costs in more detail, you can do so in this article. As we can see, if the average cost of a cremation in the UK (according to SunLife) is £3,795, then, once the essentials have been paid for, the price can be brought down a good bit by forgoing some or all of the ‘avoidable costs’.
The average cost of a cremation ceremony in the UK, according to SunLife, is £3,795. It’s important to bear in mind that there’s a lot of room for variation with the cost of cremations because where you are in the UK and whether or not you want a ‘direct cremation’ can make the price higher or lower.
The list above shows us the potential to add or reduce the cost for cremation depending on whether certain elements are included in the service.
It will come as no surprise to learn that the place in the UK with the most expensive cost to cremate is London, averaging £5,171. The place in mainland Britain with the lowest costs of cremation is North West England, with an average price of £3,802.
Cremations costs will likely vary depending on where you live in the UK. When you buy a cup of coffee in London, you could pay as much as £5. Whereas it’s still possible to get one in Glasgow for £1.50. The same dynamics apply to the price of cremation.
Some national providers, like Aura, will provide a fixed price for their cremation services regardless of where you are in mainland Britain, so there are ways to mitigate the impact of location on the question of how much cremation costs.
The average cost of a burial in the UK in 2023 was £5,077, rising 5.9% from the previous year. Cremation, as we know, is a less expensive form of funeral than burial. That’s because when we opt for a cremation, we’re avoiding some big costs, such as a fee for the plot where we are buried, and also for our headstones.
With a headstone, there’s a lot of scope for fluctuation in price, as the materials, details, size, and epitaph can all be customised. It’s important to note that, if you’re interested in a prepaid funeral plan, it will not cover the cost of your burial plot and headstone, among other things, so make sure you understand what you’re getting for your money.
With a little bit of creativity, it’s possible to minimise, or completely eliminate, a lot of the individual costs that contribute to a high overall price.
Instead of having a catered wake at a hotel or a local pub, why not organise something at home and ask the guests to contribute by bringing a dish or a bottle of something? Everyone can still come together in the aftermath of a funeral to remember their loved one, but you don’t need to stress about paying a large bill at the end. You can then use the money you’ve saved to organise a more special event later.
Floral tributes, according to Funeral Guide, can cost anywhere between £40 and £400, and many of us don’t realise how expensive things like that can be until we are forced to think about it. If a floral display is something you can go without at your funeral, it’s possible to create the same effect with a hand-gathered bouquet of garden or wild flowers; a sprig of Rosemary symbolising remembrance; or a single white rose can be just as impactful, and a lot cheaper.
The cheapest form of cremation in the UK is called direct cremation. It’s a form of cremation that has become much more popular among British people in recent years for three main reasons:
A direct cremation doesn’t have any guests or a detailed service. It doesn’t typically include traditional formal elements like hearses, pallbearers, or funeral processions. The focus is on honouring the person who has died in as concise and dignified a way as possible, on their terms. There’s more scope for personalisation in the way the ceremony unfolds, but equally, it allows people an understated option without any fanfare, if that’s what they prefer.
The average cost of a direct cremation in 2023, according to SunLife, was £1,498, less than half of the average price they give for cremation in general in the UK. Aura’s direct cremation funerals for those organising one now start at £1,095, whereas our direct cremation funeral plans start at £1,595.
Depending on the provider you opt for, there may well be numerous different ways to pay. With Aura, you can pay the cost of your direct cremation plan in one go, or in instalments over one or two years, depending on what you prefer.
Regardless of whether you pay all at once or in monthly instalments, your final price will be the same; that’s not necessarily the case with other providers, many of whom will charge interest for their monthly payments.
It goes without saying that, whether you’re opting for a simple direct cremation, or a more traditional funeral, funerals can be expensive. The burden of paying for one can bring a lot of stress into our lives at a moment when we could be vulnerable with grief. If you find yourself struggling to find a way of paying for a funeral, there are some support schemes out there which could help you.
The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) runs two schemes for the benefit of those in need: The Bereavement Support Payment and The Funeral Expenses Payment. You may also be able to access your loved one’s bank or building society account in order to pay funeral costs directly from funds held there; this can be done through the Grant of Probate scheme.
You can find some helpful information from Money Saving Expert which talks about what to avoid when shopping for a funeral plan. For instance, they recommend steering clear of plans which let you pay in fixed monthly instalments until you are 90 years old, or until you die, as these are technically not funeral plans, but a form of over-50s life insurance.
Different plan providers will cover different things with their funeral plans, with costs like burial plot and headstone not typically included in burial funeral plans. Aura’s funeral plans are all inclusive, meaning that, even for expenses like doctor’s fees, oversized coffins, and urgent-collection fees, there will be nothing left to pay for you or your family when the time comes. Learn more about Aura’s prepaid direct cremation plans here.
Whether or not you opt for a funeral plan, the best thing you can do is to make sure that you are well informed, so that you can come to a measured decision that works for you. If you have any questions at all for our team, we’d be delighted to hear from you over the phone; you can give us a call on 0800 066 3346, or you can simply request a free quote on our website.
