The client will get a flat-rate payment as part of their award.
They can use this to pay for costs related to the funeral. For example, funeral director fees, the coffin or flowers. The client can decide what they spend the money on.
The client will get:
You should only award the lower rate if the funeral plan is fully paid up, someone else pays the balance or the company honours the plan, despite it not being fully paid.
If the plan is not fully paid and the provider only agrees to honour part of it or instead returns the premiums, please raise a case query with the Decision Support Team. The Decision Support Team will request legal advice to determine whether this should be viewed as an asset or a funeral plan.
If the person who died has a pre-paid funeral plan, confirm this with the funeral director. The client needs to tell us in their application if they consent for us to contact the funeral director.
In some cases, the client may only accept responsibility for part of the funeral costs. For example, the client and their sibling may have agreed to pay 50% of the funeral costs each. When this happens, you should calculate the burial/cremation and transport fees based on how the client has agreed to share the costs. For example, if the client is paying for 50% of the costs, we need to divide each cost in half. The flat-rate payment should still be paid in full.