I live pretty much paycheck to paycheck so something like a funeral is way outside of my price range, even cremation which is like 800$ is still way more than I could afford. But no one’s waiting for you to become financially stable to die. No one just have like 15k lying around for a funeral. So what happens if you just don’t have money for a funeral or a cremation?
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Either someone in your family or a friend can pay for your funeral and cremation or the province will cremate you and put you in an unmarked grave.
No funeral for you then.
In NZ, funeral grants are available through govt agencies. Work and income which deals with sickness/ unemployment benefits etc or ACC if you die in an accident.
In the US, the coroner or medical examiner will dispose of the remains in their own way, but you have to sign a release. Depending on the person and cause of death, some donate the body to science.
If no one claims your body, often funeral homes and morgues will trick relatives into claiming your body, they bury you in communal grave or cremate your body. The thing is most people are grieving and then blindly sign things and then they are on the hook for the burial fees. I used to worry about this at a young age because I was an orphan and I was worried about being a burden to someone so I prepaid for my cremation. I figure it is cheaper now than it will be when I die because all costs go up.
If nobody pays for your funeral, you don’t have a funeral. What happens to your body will depend on local laws.
This was my grandmothers situation. She got all the paperwork together to be donated to science after her passing. They came and collected her when she passed and my grandfather got her cremated remains back about six months later. It’s a good option for those who cannot afford to do the process themselves.
It’s state funded then, the cheapest they can go.
I keep making the argument that when I pass, they just need to toss my body to the streets.
They revive them
Just toss my corpse to the gators
Best to donate the body to science and research labs
They make you come back alive and work it off!
If no one is willing to pay for any funeral arrangements, like a person with no known family, the government will bury them in a very basic graveyard with many many other people (sometimes called pauper’s graves) and keep track of where those remains were buried, so in the future if a family member did wish to visit or exhume the remains they could.
I’m 75M
Depends on precisely which state you live in if you are in the US.
In Minnesota, if family or friends do not come forward to handle it. by state law it becomes the county governments problem and expense. It’s all codified in law. The county will assume custody of taking care of the arrangements. And will bury the person. They are prohibited from cremation unless it is known the the deceased wished for that. They will try to determine any religious affiliation and get hold of a chaplain or minister if applicable. Locate an available plot, purchase a basic coffin, conduct a ceremony. If the deceased had left any property worth anything the county will arrange a sale, deduct expenses. If any amount is left over will try to find surviving relative to give any remaining funds to.
No idea about other states.
It may be possible to get donations from a charity. These things aren’t advertised, but some churches have a fund for funerals of people who are destitute or whose survivors can’t afford a funeral.
Some people set up GoFundMe accounts or have it done for them.
You can always donate your body to science.
Crowdfunding, or someone steps up.
They throw you in the dumpster
I’m a little worried about your username
Contact your nearest university medical school. We’ve all benefitted from medicine or surgery in one way or another and this is a beautiful way to pay it forward. Your loved one fills out some forms/attestations. When they pass, you call their number and they respectfully come to pick up your loved one.
Where I live, the govt has a “bereavement assistance program” to provide basic funeral services for people with no money.
Most places offer government-funded or low cost cremation/burial options if the family can’t afford it.
In my Canadian province, if you have an estate below a certain (very modest) size, the government will pay a death benefit that’s intended to cover expenses for a basic funeral. It would cover a very modest casket or a cremation with a basic but surprisingly nice urn, and all the expenses charged by the funeral home to take care of picking up the deceased person’s body and performing the cremation. There’s one particular funeral home in my city that specializes in this sort of work and they are really respectful and surprisingly non-pushy.
In Houston, Texas, the county (Harris) offers free or reduced cremation services for families unable to afford it. GoFundMe is pretty common in Texas for funeral expenses. If you belong to a church or religious community, the community usually pulls together to help out.
I once had a sudden death in my family and remember giving my credit card over at one point during the service to pay $5k balance remaining. This was unexpected and undiscussed, I was a bit blindsided. I was able to collect about $2,500 from other members.
For unidentified bodies in Houston, they’re buried in a potter’s field in the north east portion of the county or go towards medical research.
I’ve pre-paid my cremation services and made my final wishes known.
The answer depends on where you live and what the common rituals are for taking care of a dead body. Where I live if there are no relatives or friends willing or able to pay for it, there are some other possibilities. Most of the churches, synagogues, and mosques around me will take care of burial/cremation for an indigent member of their congregation/assembly. There are one or two charitable organizations that will step up and help, too. The last resort measure is that the county would take care of burying the body in a pauper’s grave.
Also if the person donates their body for use by medical schools or research organizations, any organization that accepts the body will take care of burial of what remains after the research is done.
You ask for help and get it done
My mom donated her body to science (her choice). They cremated the rest of her and sent us the ashes. It cost nothing, but we did have to wait a couple of months before they could send her ashes.
Depending on your state, you can donate the body to science. We did that with my brother in Arizona and it was free. He signed off on it when he was alive.
In Amsterdam, if you die without anyone to take care of the funeral the municipality will pay and send a poet to your funeral to recite a poem for you.
I was friends with a guy on a sub here years back, then he disappeared and I lost touch with him. I knew some of his info in real life and was able to get in touch with some people who had worked with him so I tried looking him up a few years ago.
It turns out he ended up homeless and died on the street from his health problems. When they found his body, there was nobody to claim him so they kept his body in the morgue for some requisite amount of time, and after that amount of time had passed and nobody had claimed him he was cremated by the city or county and put into a shared and unmarked grave with others who were in the same position.
I will find out, because I refuse to pay to die. Put me in a hole in the desert, in an unmarked grave for all I care.
I have never seen corpes lingering around. So it save to assume the deseased people are taken care of by the sociaty
I think I’d go for something like a tibetan sky burial, that or just leave my body in a forest somewhere and let nature reclaim me
Don’t know about rest of the world but in Pakistan if you can’t afford funeral your relatives or your neighbour will pay all the expenses. When someone died in their family now it’s your responsibility to take care of all the things whenever you get the chance.
A homeless oldman who died, from slipping on a puddle in a public restroom, back in 2019 in our town was buried in a “unmarked grave”/ditch in the woods near our cemetery…
Context:
^(he ran away from his family:wife and kids back in the 80s and decided to live in the same town as his sister they either fought idk she dead as well for a long time and probably didnt want to live with her husband, Bro decided to be homeless than ask for apology I guess…)
^(but around his death, some volunteers were trying to reach out to his Wife’s family, Relatives and kids, but they had no interest in claiming his Corpse)
My ex husband, whom I was still close friends with, unfortunately died in this situation with no family left to mourn him or to help. The county waited a while and then cremated him. His cremains remain in a county building somewhere. I’m very sad about it, because we were still close and the idea that his cremains have to sit there rather than be with someone who cares for him is very distressing.
I am a person who works on the dead. In my state, we will cover the costs for you if you’re willing to donate your loved ones to us for tissue and/or organ recovery. The decedent does not need to be registered as long as the family consents to the donation. However, understand that if you’re trying to cover up a murder, it won’t be in your favor because my team and I work quite closely with the medical examiner and law enforcement to find any evidence of trauma (internally and externally).
The small temple near my house provides free rooms for elderly people and cremation services for individuals who cannot afford them. After cremation, they also offers a free place to keep the ashes too. The overall cost is very low, with cremation conducted in a paper carton. It only costs ~$1k to $1k5 per person.
I often help take care of people there, and it is a very nice and peaceful place.
We usually just put them out back and wait for animal control to show up
If you can’t afford a funeral, the state/county usually takes care of it. It’s called an indigent burial or cremation program. It won’t be fancy, but they’ll make sure the body is handled respectfully. You’re not left alone in that situation.
The state basically gets a budget funeral, like ramen noodles
In England, you’d contact your local council and tell them you can’t afford to pay for arrangements for dealing with the body (not too sure about the rest of the UK). A “public health funeral” (also known as a pauper’s funeral) would then be arranged, which is a basic funeral service that the council pays for. They’re provided because you can’t just leave dead people lying around who can’t afford to be buried and/or have nobody to bury them. The council does have the ability to try to recoup money from the estate though, so you’d have to be sure you really couldn’t afford it and could deal with any resulting stress.
They don’t let you die, you go work for Walmart untill you make enough for a funeral and then they come kill you
Most funeral homes have a payment program.
r/UsernameChecksOut ??
OP whatever you’re planning, don’t do it !!
I’m sure people day every minute and I can’t afford what used to be the dollar menu even tho my salary is triple what I ever made before. I’m just counting on me dying first before it’s someone I’m financially responsible for
If you are considering body donation as a way to avoid charges, PLEASE check the rules in your state for body donation. I live in Florida and the donating person is responsible for the preservation of the body and the shipping fees to whatever med school the state anatomical board decides needs the next cadaver. When I checked on it 6 or 7 years ago, it would have cost me around $6,000. Body donation is not always the best solution. My mother-in-law cost only $800 for cremation 20 years ago, but that was the rate that was available for persons who were receiving state cash assistance.
In Germany it’s pretty difficult to get into this situation, but if there is really nobody to pay it, the state will pay for a very simple burial with no extras. But it’s difficult to get into this situation because everyone who inherits something is responsible for the costs there, and if you can’t afford it and the inheritance isn’t enough to cover it, you can just not accept the inheritance and not be responsible. Only way you can’t get out of it is if you were obligation to support when they were still alive, for example because it was your kid or husband/ wife. Then you either have to pay or ask the state to cover it if you can’t + there is no inheritance to cover it.
You can put the remains in a Folgers can if there is a Ralph’s in the area
Most counties have financial aid for the passing of people who can’t afford it
In Norway the government pays for a “simple burial and head stone” they also pay for parts of the cost if you can’t afford to cover everything.
Id day check around for places that offer green burials. They are a much cheaper option because they aren’t embalmed, dont have concrete vaults, and require a very simple casket. Aside from donating your body to science, it’s the cheapest way to go.
It’s also, in my opinion, the right way to do it. Preserving ourselves in sealed boxes removes us from the overall cycle of life. We should return to the earth.
If a family can’t afford a funeral, the local government arranges a simple “pauper’s funeral” or cremation. It’s very basic with little choice, but ensures the person is respectfully laid to rest
I don’t know about donating to science. I know I’m dead and all, but I don’t want a bunch of hot college chicks seeing my small dick and balls! I had enough of that in my younger years…
Years ago my parents decided they didn’t want the “burden” to be put on my brother and I if they passed away. We were a (lower end) middle class family. My Mom went to our small town funeral home and spoke with them. They ended up making ALL the arrangements for both of their funerals (down to the music), cremations, and got a cemetery plot with a headstone put in place already. Over the years they have made monthly payments for everything. It was hard to listen to my parents talk about this with us and take us to see where their headstone is with their names and birthdates engraved in it..Thank God my parents are still with us! I never wanted to think about any of that, but now that my brother and I are 54 and 50, it takes a load off knowing that we won’t have to make any arrangements or anything when they leave us. Us siblings both have kids and years back decided we should do the same for our own kids. Now they won’t have to worry about the cost when it’s time for us to go.
With that being said, where I live, if you can’t afford any end of life costs for a family member the state gives you an “allowance” to cover very basic burials or cremations.
A lot of bodies are not accepted as donations. I was told after a month or so they cremate all the unclaimed bodies together and I could pick up a portion of the ashes but it would be a mix of cremated remains.
Gotta “put out” for it….
in my country (Belarus) the government pays quite a decent one-time payment (around $400) for your passed away relative. it’s more than enough for a very basic funeral.
and after all, as it is frequently said here “you ain’t left on the surface”
It depends on what country you’re in.
In Turkey, the government pays for all funerals anyhow. My colleague died many years ago and, based on one person’s vague memory of him saying he was perhaps Jewish, he was buried in the Jewish cemetery. No stone.
Fyi people in Turkey still have to pay for headstones and you pay a bit extra if you want to have a certain plot (like next to your spouse.) you also pay for the food for people who come to the funeral, but the tradition is that you just eat pide, which is cheap.
It’s good here, at least in terms of that.
Public cremation
In canada if tou are low income and youre responsible for the person who has died you can apply to the government for the cost of cremation and then you find a funeral home that will take that amount for cremation they also pay for a small urn for you. As far as I know with no next of kin in canada they may cover the cost of burial or cremation which ever is cheaper and appropriate for the remains.
Most funeral homes have payment plans.
donating to science is also an option.
if you don’t claim the body many municipalities (at least in usa) will bury it in a pauper grave.
In the states, if the deceased is on social security the surviving spouse or family receives a modest payment (a couple hundred bucks) as a “death benefit.” At least it’s something.
Funeral homes often will work with families short on money. Some of them will still charge you an arm and a leg, but they will do payment plans.
I can well afford a funeral but I think it’s the biggest waste. Not only in money, but environmentally as well. I know they say funerals are for the living but in my opinion – if they want to see me, see me while I’m alive. I’m game to do anything they want to do.
I’m donating my body to a university. I worked in healthcare and I want to continue to use my body to help others live a better life. I want to once again, return to university and leave as a smart-ASH.
Can you afford a shovel?
Im a funeral director in the UK.
We do what we call “contract funeral,” which are from the council. The council pai for them if no one can, it’s free, but its the cheapest possible funeral. You won’t get any customisation unless you pay for it. I’m not sure about America though
When my dad passed away, he had $843 to his name. I filed for indigent funeral services with the county. They worked with me on the price for cremation and let me make payments.
When I die, yall can just bury me in the yard with the other bodies
They bring you back to life and make you work more
Years ago I worked for an attorney, and I was a Notary Public. One day someone from the neighborhood came into the office asking if someone could notarize something for her and then fax it somewhere. The lead attorney sent her to me. The document was to the county medical examiner saying that the family had no money for the funeral or burial of someone who had died, and releasing the body to be dealt with as a “pauper”. It was explained to me later that the deceased would be handled the same way as any homeless person found dead on the streets.