MIKE Amesbury has praised Halton Borough Council as he calls for more to be done to end funeral poverty.

Speaking during a Westminster Hall debate on the issue, the Weaver Vale MP said welfare cuts coupled with the rising costs of even a very basic funeral had led some of the most vulnerable in society to have to turn to things such as crowdfunding to raise money to bury their loved ones.

He said: “We talk a lot about the cost of living, but we probably talk a little less about the cost of dying.

“So-called “difficult choices” about welfare spending meant that the Government refused to increase the £700 maximum for funeral-related expenses provided by the social fund.

“That figure has not gone up since 2003, although funeral costs have.

"According to SunLife Insurance, funeral costs have risen by 70% in the past decade alone, and the average cost of a funeral in Britain now stands at almost £4,000.”

Mr Amesbury said a recent YouGov survey found that 4 million people in the UK had suffered hardship following the death of somebody close to them and research has shown that people are taking on an average of £1,744 of debt to pay for a funeral, an all-time high.

He added: “The Minister’s difficult choice is nothing when compared with the difficult choices faced by those forced to find money elsewhere—for example, by crowdfunding.

"There are even reports of mortuaries keeping bodies for several months until a family could afford the cost of a funeral, and it is almost impossible to imagine the distress that that must cause.”

In his speech Mr Amesbury said public health funerals, sometimes called paupers’ funerals, have risen by 70% in the past three years, adding: “If the phrase “paupers’ funeral” sounds Dickensian and outdated, that is surely because it is.

“What could be more Dickensian than having no option but to rely on charities or to beg and borrow simply to afford the most basic of dignified funerals?”

In his address he also praised a decision by Halton Borough Council to introduce a new affordable funeral option.

He said: “Halton Borough Council in my constituency has just begun to offer a fixed-cost funeral package for under £2,000—that local authority is putting its principles where its mouth is.

"Also, as a Co-operative party Member, I am pleased to see that the Co-op has just reduced the price of its low-cost funeral by £100.”

Mr Amesbury called on the government to take a number of steps, including simplifying the 23-page application form bereaved families have to fill in to apply for funding for a funeral.

He also called for an eligibility checker so families know if they’re entitled to help before they fall into debt.