Why now’s the time to start
making your funeral plans
With more and more people dying, can you actually afford to?
Fortunately most of us are too busy living life to think about it ending. But, despite it not being a very cheery thought, now could be the right time to consider your end of life plan.
Sadly, this isn’t just important because you want everything to be as easy as possible for your loved ones at a difficult time. The truth is there are growing concerns about how we talk about, pay for, plan and organise the process of ageing and dying.
The number of deaths is going down
Thanks to better healthcare and our higher quality of life, the number of deaths each year in England and Wales is at an all time low, with 491,348 deaths registered in 2009. Although this still sounds like a lot, it is actually a fall of 3.5% from the previous year, and the first time the number had fallen to under half a million since records began1. If you include Scotland and Northern Ireland, the total number of people who died in the UK in 2009 was approximately 560,0002.
When you consider this extraordinary low (alongside the population boom that occurred after the Second World War) unfortunately we’re all set for the number of people dying each year to grow significantly in the future. And, as Dr Kate Woodthorpe – lecturer in Sociology at the University of Bath – explains, this could create challenges in the future:
“As a society, we have to ask ourselves whether the current infrastructure for end of life support is fit for purpose. It is anticipated that the number of deaths will rise significantly and by 2030 there will be an additional 80,000 people dying a year. This equates to a rise of 17% in the death rate in less than 21 years.”
What does this mean for the future?
This substantial rise in people dying will stretch the current levels of state resources and social care to breaking point. And could lead to a situation where many people are passing on with no way of paying for ever more expensive funerals.
Combined with other costs like probate, headstones and flowers, making sensible plans for your end of life now could make all the difference to your friends and family at a very difficult it time.
To find out more, read our article Planning a Funeral.
Source: Mintel Consumer Research Study, July 2011