The average person only has enough savings to fund a basic funeral.

A recent report revealed that the average person would only last about 96 days on their savings if they hit hard times. The survey of 2,000 adults revealed that most of them only had £3,769 in savings set aside for a rainy day. One in six of those surveyed don't have a single penny of savings. With the cost of a basic funeral at around £3,500 clearly far too many families would have to go into serious debt to cover this eventuality. Only a tiny minority of us have or could afford a funeral plan. Unfortunately the numbers signing this petition, so far has been lower than I had expected. However, as I continue to research the cost of funerals, I am waiting to hear form politicians at the Westminster and Scottish Parliaments, who are concerned about the very high cost of funerals, before I decide if I should close this petition. At that point the information gathered will be passed to these politicians. it does not require hundreds of thousands of people to sign this sort of petition for politicians to take action. I successfully got the Scottish Parliament to debate and pass the legislation to give the votes to 16-17 year olds in Scotland, with a petition of only 409. Whilst awaiting feedback from our parliaments I will continue to research the unacceptable cost of funerals. If any of you have information about how families are struggling to meet funnels costs I would be delighted if your could share this with others through this petition. This can be done without revealing any personal details. This week I heard of the family of a 14 year old boy who it appears committed suicide, only being able to arrange his funeral with the generous financial support of friends and neighbours. Surely this is not an acceptable situation in a society that is as affluent as our is.