Cheap Funeral Plans Compared: 5 Low-Cost Options in The UK

The Coop is a leader in funeral services and has a long and well-deserved reputation for quality. Unlike most funeral providers, the Coop is not geared simply to bottom-line profit maximisation. They are, as their name suggests, a Cooperative; this is the first score in their favour, as it helps keep prices down and aligns with their whole ethos, which is to provide a service to the community.

The second score in their proposition is that they have a totally standardised and quality-controlled set of packages. This means wherever you go, you know exactly what you will get. This includes bereavement and ceremony advice, which can be very helpful indeed to the friends and family who are responsible for carrying out your wishes.

The third point in their favour relates directly to the second, that they cover the whole country. This is important if you move after taking out a pre-paid plan, as you plan moves with you.

We like their 'Simple' plan which is based on cremation and includes a simple coffin, which is really all you need for a lightly attended or unattended cremation, and a very low-key ceremony with either no attendees or a few people. You can either pre-pay £3,295 in full or choose pay in instalments, from £21 per month. If you take the monthly payment option, and you die before it is fully paid, the Coop will still perform the services.

There are some restricted dates and times of day for visiting the chapel of rest and the funeral, but considering the current Government Covid-19 policy, this may not be an issue in any case.

As their name suggests, Simplicity Cremations are specialists in no-fuss, low-cost funerals. They cover most of the country and like the Coop, if you buy a pre-paid plan and you subsequently move home, your plan moves with you. Simplicity also has a standardised and quality-controlled offering. What sets them apart is their very low-cost starting point, which is for an unattended cremation for slightly under £1,000. In practice, this is a headline price and the option we would suggest is the Lily plan, which starts at £1,495 in full or £ 17 per month.

For that, you get the collection and transportation of the deceased to their mortuary facilities and a direct cremation in a simple wood effect coffin. You also get the return of the ashes and a certain amount of telephone support. We recommend the prepaid option, first because it works out more affordable and secondly because if you die with the monthly instalments unfinished, then a friend or family member will have to organise and pay for the remainder.

Simplicity also has two slightly higher-level standardised plans if you want a short funeral for up to 12 people with the Magnolia plan at £1,795 or £ 20 per month or a more elaborate funeral with the Orchid plan at £2,295 or £ 25 per month. All offer good value for money.

Dignity is another large and well thought of provider of affordable funerals, although they also cater to much more expensive requirements. They have over 800 locations across the UK and offer 4 prepaid funeral plans.

Their base Limited Funeral Plan is £2,995.00 for a simple cremation; you get collection and transportation of the deceased, care and preparation of the deceased, a basic coffin viewing of the deceased in a private chapel, and a hearse with a procession.

Some restrictions apply to the location, day and time of the funeral and it’s not possible to make a contribution towards any extra or special requests so we recommend you could also consider the next plan up which is the Amber Plan which costs a little more at £3,395 or £23.05 per month.

This Amber package is the top end of low-cost funerals; you get a comprehensive service which allows burial as well as cremation plus a traditional set of trappings including a full hearse and funeral procession to the crematorium or burial site.

In both cases, if you move, then the plan moves with you.

Not everyone realises that the charity Age UK (now Age Co UK) offer funeral plans, along with all their other products and services, which they do via a subsidiary of Dignity. Age Co UK plans are essentially rebadged versions of those from Dignity, the difference being that some of that profit will go to charity.

Moving back very firmly into cheap funeral plans, Pure Cremations offer an unattended cremation funeral service with a headline price of £1,195 across almost all the UK. Pure Cremation make the very sensible point to some that there are many ways of celebrating someone’s life without an expensive funeral. So, with Pure Cremation, there is no funeral service at all. What you get is the deceased moved to their central facility, a pine ‘eco-coffin’ and an ashes container with identity disc.

It’s an affordable, dignified and hassle-free service with ‘no frills’. We recommend it if you really are looking for straightforward cheap prepaid funeral plans.

If big companies are not your thing, then another route to consider is Golden Charter.

A funeral plan with Golden Charter is a service provided and owned by local, independent funeral directors which is around 3,000 local funeral directors at present.

Unlike Co-op, Simplicity Cremations, Dignity/Age Co or Pure Cremation, you can use your local providers, which will appeal to some. On the other hand, you don’t get a standardised (or homogeneous) product although you get something pretty close with the four pre-created packages offered: Value, Standard, Select and Premier.

Since in the article we are focusing on cheap funeral plans, we’d recommend you take a look at the Value package, which is a very reasonable £2,895 or £13.59 per month. However it gets a bit complicated as there is an £800 cap on fees to third parties, which includes the burial fees or cremation fees, so depending on where the service is done, how it is done and who is doing it, you might be fully covered or you might not.

That said it’s a good package on offer as you get support arranging logistics, collection and transportation of the deceased to a Golden Charter local funeral director’s premises, but only within a 25-mile radius and during working hours.

You also get use of a chapel of rest or service rooms, family viewing, a basic coffin and the funeral service at either a local cemetery or a local crematorium.

So, if there is, for example, a local independent funeral director who you has been recommended to you then Golden Charter is well worth considering for a cheap funeral plan.