Telford & Wrekin Council organised 'paupers' funerals' for two Madeley men in 2024, data shows
A council in Shropshire acted as funeral director for two people who died without the means to pay for a burial during 2024, newly updated data reveals.
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Telford & Wrekin Council has released information on public heath funerals hosted by the council over the last 20 years, with new information from last year.
Public health funerals are also known as national assistance funerals and paupers’ funerals. Permanent memorials are not allowed on burial plots of paupers, and graves “are used for a second burial of a similar nature”.
During 2024 the council spent a total of £900 – £450 each – on funerals that are a requirement of the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984.
Councils have a statutory duty to make arrangements for the funeral of the body of any person who has died within the borough, where it appears that the deceased has no living relatives or sufficient funds for a burial.
If there is money in the estate of the deceased they will seek to recover expenses. Neither of the two people who died as paupers in 2024 had any assets, the report reads.
The two people the council organised funerals for were men, from different addresses in Madeley. One was aged 63 and the other 72, the data reveals. The marital status of both was ‘unknown’.
Since 2004 there have been 49 paupers' funerals in Telford & Wrekin. The oldest was an 88-year-old bachelor from Wellington in 2010 and the youngest was a 44-year-old resident of Leegomery in 2006.
The most that any of the deceased had in assets when they died was £11,320 but most had no assets to their name. In most cases the council spent £450 per funeral, the figures reveal.
The council says that if a person dies without a known next of kin, it normally acts on written instructions received from the local coroner’s officer.
In some instances, the managers of residential homes and sheltered accommodation advise of circumstances, as far as they know.
“Where the coroner has notified the council of a death where there appears to be no one willing to make the funeral arrangements, a search of the deceased person’s home will be undertaken to try and find a will or any documents that will help to identify the existence of any relatives or funeral preferences,” says the council’s website.
“Where details of family and friends are found, they will be informed of the death and invited to make the funeral arrangements.
“Close relatives or partners will be asked to confirm in writing that they are not prepared to make arrangements for the funeral."
If next of kin is not prepared to arrange and pay for the funeral they will be asked to make a written statement to confirm that they are not prepared to do this, and to confirm they won’t have access to their relative’s property or funds.
If the next of kin receives a named benefit, they may be entitled to a funeral payment from the Social Fund.
If there is no-one available or prepared to arrange the funeral and all alternative options are exhausted, the council will take responsibility for the funeral arrangements, upon receiving written confirmation from all relatives that they have no interest in their relative’s estate.
These include arranging the registration of the death and instructing a funeral director to collect the body, provide a coffin and transport the deceased to one of the council’s cemeteries for burial.
