Cost of "paupers funerals" in South Yorkshire town increases by 943 per cent

A Freedom of Information request, found Rotherham Council spent £16,275 on public health funerals so far in the financial year from April 2020.

Public health funerals, or “pauper’s funerals”, are held by local authorities when no arrangements have been made for a deceased person in their area.

The basic services usually include a coffin and the services of a funeral director.

Family and friends can attend, but flowers and transport are usually not included, and some public health burials take place in an unmarked shared grave.

Rotherham’s figure is a 943 per cent jump from £1,560 in the financial year 2019-20.

in 2019-20, 18 funerals, for people who have died alone, in poverty or without relatives, were held, and in 2020-21, 19 public health funerals took place.

However, the council say this discrepancy in costs is down to “significant costs” that were not recovered until the following year.

Councillor David Roche, cabinet member for public health, said: “The Council recouped significant costs in 2019/20 that were not recovered until 2020/21. It is the delay in the recovery of these costs which accounts for the discrepancy in the figures.”

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