Sunlife: Basic cost of funeral falls to £3,953

SunLife’s latest Cost of Dying report – the longest-running study into funeral prices – has revealed that the cost of a basic funeral has fallen to £3,953.

This is a decrease of 2.5% from the previous year – the second consecutive drop in price, and still only the second-ever fall since the research began in 2004. However, during this 18-year period, there has been a 116% rise in funeral costs.

However, the overall cost of dying – which includes the funeral plus the professional fees and the send-off – has risen by 3.8% to £9,200. This is nearly an all-time high for the cost of dying.

Although the cost of a basic funeral is lower than last year, Sunlife said it’s the other two elements – professional fees and the send-off – that have pushed up the total cost of dying.

Hiring a professional to administer the estate has increased 10.9% since the 2022 report, reaching an average £2,578. And the amount spent on the send-off – that’s optional extras, such as flowers, catering, and limousines – adds a further £2,669, up 7.4%.

Burials – which make up a quarter of all services – remain the most expensive type of funeral at £4,794 (-2.7%). Cremations, the most popular type (57%), are moderately cheaper at £3,673 (-2.4%).

Sunlife found it is direct cremations that are now the most affordable with an average price £1,511, down 8.2% from last year. Overall direct cremations now make up 18% of all services.

Mark Screeton, SunLife’s CEO, said: “It’s surprising to see, at a time when everything else is going up in price, that funeral costs have fallen for a second consecutive year. We’ve never witnessed this trend before in our almost two decades of research.

“With UK inflation hitting its highest rate in 40 years, this feels like a rare piece of financially positive news among all the other gloomy economic headlines.”