a client who was claiming IS jointly with his wife all paid to her. The wife has passed away so that claim has stopped. He has put in a new claim for I.S and a funeral grant. This is going to take time to process. The problem is that the wife wanted a burial and the undertaker needs the money for the plot before the funeral.

Can he get a crisis loan for this? If not any suggessions

Would be excluded from discretionary SF as is a funeral expense. I had a similar scenario recently. The problem is that a lot of funeral directors now require a deposit before the funeral can go ahead. You could try a charity (was the client or his deceased wife ever in the forces, for instance? In which case you could try SSAFA or British Legion) but failing that, your client will just have to beg, borrow or steal. My client managed to borrow the money from other relatives in the end (though the funeral had to be deferred twice whilst they tried to raise the money).

As a matter of interest, just what would happen to the body if no undertaker could be found to bury/cremate it?

On a Life of Grime - narrated by the lovely smooth voice of John Peel - if the deceased had no family or anyone else to arrange the funeral the local authority would take over responsibility and pay for a "paupers funeral." No burial though, only cremation as far as i remember.

However as there is a Husband in this case i don't know what would happen - would have to stay in a mortuary i suppose until such time as the money was raised.

The LA will bury or cremate

"in any case where it appears to the authority that not suitable arrangements for the disposal of the body have been or are being made otherwise than by the authority."

Philip Boyd

The local authority has a duty to bury/ cremate the remains. (Public Health (Control of Diseases) Act 1984) Part III

Some LA's still call it a 'paupers funeral' although the practice has come a long way from the Poor Law and communal graves.
Philip Boyd

I had a feeling the LA would be responsible. I suppose I was wondering whether it was still a pauper's funeral or whether some rather more elaborate arangements were now made.

Would it be possible for the client to get an interim payment for a funeral grant? I am thinking that you could argue that he may be entitled to the qualifying payment Income Support and that he is just waiting for that claim to be processed.

I am asking, I am not sure about this!

Many years ago when I was a real solicitor I did arrange a funeral where the local authority had to intervene because the hospital couldn't keep the body in its mortuary any longer. It's pretty basic but still quite dignified. I recall that the funeral directors used a very plain coffin, took the coffin to the crematorium in a secret compartment in the hearse with another funeral, and then the director and his men took the coffin in to the crematorium and stood to attention while the cremation took place. The only relative, a very elderly and infmr lady, did not attend as she hardly knew the deceased,