{"id":1998,"date":"2018-09-09T23:44:32","date_gmt":"2018-09-09T23:44:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/co-op-joins-price-war-as-people-choose-budget-funerals\/"},"modified":"2018-09-09T23:44:32","modified_gmt":"2018-09-09T23:44:32","slug":"co-op-joins-price-war-as-people-choose-budget-funerals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/co-op-joins-price-war-as-people-choose-budget-funerals\/","title":{"rendered":"Co-op joins price war as people choose budget funerals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n
<\/p>\n

\"cemetery\"Image copyright<\/span>
\n Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

The Co-op is offering to beat funeral prices offered by rivals, amid greater competition in the sector.<\/p>\n

The firm is also reducing the cost of its lowest-priced “Simple” funeral.<\/p>\n

Rival provider, Dignity, found more of its customers chose its budget option, with a standard-issue coffin and no frills after it reduced prices earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Royal London reported last week<\/a> that the average cost of a funeral fell very slightly over the last year to \u00a33,757.<\/p>\n

While the direct costs of burial and cremation have risen, funeral directors have reduced their costs to compensate, Royal London’s National Funeral Costs Index indicated.<\/p>\n

‘Hardship’<\/h2>\n

The Co-op said it was reducing its prices in response to a survey<\/a> the firm published last month looking at the financial impact of death and bereavement. <\/p>\n

The survey, conducted by YouGov, found four million people in the UK had suffered hardship following the death of someone close.<\/p>\n

Robert Maclachlan, managing director of Co-op’s Funeralcare business, said the move was part of longer-term focus on “tackling affordability”.<\/p>\n

“In the last two years we have seen a huge shift in the number of clients seeking affordable funeral choices,” he added. <\/p>\n

Almost four times as many people were choosing the cheapest service now, compared with 2015, the Co-op said.<\/p>\n

As well as promising to charge less than competitors, the Co-op said it would reduce the cost of its cheapest funeral package by \u00a3100, and offer Co-op members increased discounts.<\/p>\n

Transparency problem<\/h2>\n

The funeral services sector has come under pressure this year to become more transparent over the way its products are priced.<\/p>\n

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched an investigation<\/a> in June to ensure consumers were “not getting a bad deal”. <\/p>\n

The results will be published next summer but an interim report is expected before the end of this year.<\/p>\n

Funeral directors do not always offer the bereaved the full range of options available or give them a full breakdown of what is in each package, according to Ashley Shepherd, managing director of Over 50 Choices, a financial planning consultancy. <\/p>\n

Families can find they are left with unexpected extra costs for headstones, for example, that they thought had been included.<\/p>\n

“People don’t shop around because they’re upset and emotional,” said Mr Shepherd. <\/p>\n

‘Too high’<\/h2>\n

Increased competition in what is largely an unregulated sector, as well as increased digitalisation – allowing customers to compare prices more effectively – are likely to push charges down further, according to James Congdon, an analyst at Canaccord Genuity, who has researched the sector.<\/p>\n

“There is plenty of evidence that prices are too high,” he said, particularly when compared to margins in the same sector in other countries.<\/p>\n

“With the backdrop of the CMA investigation into pricing, and clarity of pricing, perhaps its not a surprise that prices are coming down.”<\/p>\n

According to Royal London, over the last five years the average cost of a funeral has increased broadly in line with inflation.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


\n
Source<\/a> by [author_name]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Image copyright Getty Images The Co-op is offering to beat funeral prices offered by rivals, amid greater competition in the sector. The firm is also reducing the cost of its lowest-priced “Simple” funeral. Rival provider, Dignity, found more of its customers chose its budget option, with a standard-issue coffin and no frills after it reduced … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1999,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}