Is Crowd Funding the only way for families to afford funerals?

In Hamilton, the town where I live, 45 year old David Caine lay dead in his flat for weeks, and no friends or relatives come forward to deal with his funeral. The local council had to take over to provide the most basic of all funerals, a paupers funeral. This includes a coffin, and transport to the crematorium by undertakers, who do a reading or poem to send him off, with nobody such as a minister, priests or funeral celebrant, present to record publicly anything about the life of David. The management and customers of the local pub that David used regularly, were deeply moved by this situation and had a collection to provide the money for him to have a more dignified send off. Using the Salvation Army, who knew David well, to provide a funeral ceremony. His pub mates and neighbours attended the funeral and a gathering after, in the pub to remember him. In Clydebank this week, the family of fifteen year old Paige Doherty, who was brutally murdered, were supported in their grief by friends and neighbours who raised the funds to pay for a dignified send off for Paige, with a carriage and white horses and the support of over 600 people at the funeral. In Glasgow, the family of the Muslim shopkeeper Asad Shah who was brutally murdered for daring to send Easter good wishes to people of other faiths, were also generously supported by their local community to pay for his funeral and a memorial for him. All of these instances of Crowd Funding of funerals, serve to remind us all, that the cost of a funeral is no longer affordable by many families in the UK. Having to find thousands of pounds at a few days notice, for an unexpected funeral, is sending hundreds of families into debt which they should not have to incur. When I launched this petition I said that a basic funeral today now costs £3,500 and is predicted to cost £6,800 by 2024 and over £11,000 by 2031. Surely it cannot be acceptable that excessive profits can be made from bereaved families, for funeral services, that have become so high that families have to depend on Crowd Funding to send their loved ones off with some dignity. Our parliaments will only take this scandal seriously if they believe that the public at large are serious about wanting the multi-billion pound funeral business investigated. I will be away for a few days and I hope when I return that many more of you will have taken a few minutes to encourage others to sign this petition.