Hi
I am dealing with a young person who has recently left the care of the LA. His mother died recently and he took responsibility for the funeral expenses which total £1693.00. He was awarded a SF Funeral payment of £1098.00, which is correct, leaving him with an outstanding debt of £595. He doesn't have the resources to pay this.

Can anyone point me in the direction of any charities / organisations that they know of that might help an 18 yr old person in receipt of JSA(IB)pay funeral expenses??

Did the funeral director know this was going to be a social fund funeral and that this poor lad had no money of his own? If they did I'd let them sue him and see what joy they get out of your kindly local District Judge (ours wouldn't be desperately impressed I can tell you, and would probably let him pay it off at 50p a week.)

There are directories of national charities that make grants to individuals in need. Most CABx hold them, though sometimes local organisations may be best. If you can link it to an occupational charity, they have more money than they know what to do with, and the Services charities are pretty good too. Did his mother ever work for a business that has a benevolent society?

Otherwise you could always let the local paper know: it's the sort of story they love.

Good luck

Brigid

Surely the local authority social services dept (or Children's Dept or whatever title this LA uses) ought to be using its duties to provide financial support in exceptional circumstances to a former looked after child? See S 23C(4)(c) & (5) Children Act 1989. I can think of few more compelling situations where this duty would apply.

Refusal to use the duties or a blanket rule on when they will be used may be judicially reviewable.

Apart from the legalities here, it has to be a more rights-based solution for the LA to pay than to go round charities? Having to ask charities to pay for your monther's funeral is completely demeaning.

Interestingly enough there was a front page story in the Sunday Post on Sunday stating that many Funeral Directors are now demanding cash up front.

Maybe it's time the amounts paid through Social Fund for Funeral Payments were reviewed as they seem to be constantly £1,000 or so below amount needed.

I have often thought that there should be a clear obligation on funeral directors to check whether the funeral is likely to be one paid for by the Social Fund and to give a warning to people arranging the funeral that the social fund payment is limited and is unlikely to exceed (whatever. Maybe they should have a little leaflet that spells it out. Of course you can't blame the funeral director if they don't know, but it causes a great deal of distress to everybody. I've got a case coming up shortly where the funeral was by Cooperative Funeral Services. No idea whether they are still part of the cooperative movement, but people think of them as having an ethical background. Doesn't seem very ethical to me to let people incur funeral expenses of more than twice the total amount the social fund would pay without some sort of warning.

Brigid

Try this link

www.britishgasenergytrust.org.uk/documents/BGETapplicationformNov06.pdf

Many thanks for your advice. I have already approached the LA but only verbally. I have been told twice that they could not assist but will make an approaching again in writing.

Shouldn't a formal complaint be made via the LA's complaints procedure? Possibly by an independent body if you feel there is a conflict of interest.