Babies and Children under 18

Babies, children and persons under 18

Different schemes operate for England, Wales and for Scotland.

England

In England, the Children’s Funeral Fund for England was established to ensure no parent will have to pay for their child's burial or cremation.

The Children's Funeral Fund details and claim form

You can make a claim to the Children’s Funeral Fund for England if:

the child who died was under the age of 18 or stillborn after 24 weeks of pregnancy
the burial or cremation took place in England on or after 23 July 2019

Making your claim

You must submit your claim within 6 months of the date of the funeral.
You need to submit invoices or receipts to claim for any of the fees listed.

[Forms for burial or cremation authorities and funeral directors to claim back fees and specific expenses for a child burial or cremation are here.]

Wales

Wales has a scheme in place, whereby no fees should be charged for the burial of a child or person under the age of 18 (including stillborn and foetal remains), which we support

What is included

Plot for burial or ashes interment - no charge
Grave preparation - no charge
Registration Fee - no charge
Ashes grave preparation - no charge
Memorial rights - no charge

What is not included
The wider costs of a funeral such as:

Funeral director's charges
Coffin
Flowers
Newspaper announcements
Order of service
The cost of supplying and installing a plaque

The burial authority has to reclaim costs quarterly from the local authority.

Scotland

The Scottish Government’s funeral costs plan is means-tested and does not remove the cost of children’s funerals in private burial grounds

Funeral Support Payment will be delivered by Social Security Scotland so that more people will be eligible for financial support at the point of bereavement.

In addition to this, Scottish Local Authorities have undertaken to remove their burial and cremation charges for people aged 18 and under. Sadly, unlike the schemes in England and Wales, this does not extend to cover cost reimbursement at privately operated burial grounds.

We have therefore reduced rates as follows:

Babies and small children's burials (coffins under 1.2m long):

Plot for burial - half price
Grave preparation - half price
Ashes interments - standard charge
Registration Fee - standard charge

Larger children's burials (coffins over 1.2m long) will be charged at standard prices.

Please lobby your MP/MSP to bring England and Scotland into line with Wales...
https://www.parliament.uk/get-involved/contact-your-mp/

Adjacent plots

If you wish to reserve adjacent plots* please let us know and we will mark up the register plan accordingly. The cost of reserving the plots can be spread over a time period to suit you - see here.

* except at Henley, where new tree growth and woodland creation makes it impractical to reserve adjacent plots for use in decades to come.

Costs

These websites below may be useful in terms of what financial support you're entitled to, and how to go about dealing with legalities, etc.

[updated 10/09/2019]

Children's funerals