The family you can turn to...
day or night
day or night
Following a death, there are many legal requirements to be carried out. Our staff can be contacted by telephone 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and we will advise what the next steps are. If you prefer, our Funeral Arranger will make arrangements to visit you at home.
We can offer help & advice with all of the following:
Your Funeral Arranger will carry out all the practical arrangements from helping you to select the type of funeral service, ordering the coffin, floral arrangements, hearses, music and anything else required.
It may be your wish to reflect the life of your loved one throughout the ceremony, making reference to their hobbies, interest, career or life experiences.
Our staff will help you to achieve a ceremony that is right for you and the deceased.
We offer our services to all communities, regardless of race or religious beliefs. A Humanist or Civil Celebrant can be arranged to officiate a non-religious ceremony, and a committal without any form of remembrance can also be arranged.
Most funerals are either burials or cremations and are based on what is termed as a ‘traditional’ funeral, but there are many variations. Our staff will be happy to discuss your personal requirements, offering advice on tailoring the funeral accordingly:
There are several different options to pay for your funeral with Lodge Brothers – we will provide you with a fully itemised estimate beforehand. The third-party fees & disbursements will need to be paid within 48 hours of the arrangements being confirmed, and the final funeral account invoice must be settled within 30 days of the funeral taking place. However, if you reside outside the UK we will require full payment in advance of the funeral.
We do appreciate that funerals can be expensive and present very real difficulties to families who have not made prior provision for such expenses – we have therefore provided as many payment options as possible:
If there are sufficient funds within the deceased’s bank account, then all payments can be made directly. The benefit of paying via this method is that all such costs are removed from the estate for inheritance tax purposes. Should there not be sufficient funds and a property is required to be sold, then Probate will be required – you can call the Lodge Brothers Legal Services helpline for assistance. In this case, our recommendation would be that you finance the funeral cost via option 6, and when the estate is settled the finance agreement can be paid off.
You may seek assistance from the Department of Work and Pensions to help pay for a funeral.
Funeral finance is available via an agreement with FCA regulated provider Funeral Safe Funeral Finance – Lodge Brothers Funeral Directors are appointed representatives of Funeral Safe Ltd, independent Funeral Finance Lenders.
3 simple steps to apply for your finance through Lodge Brothers Funeral Directors – the finance is not with us. We act as an agent for Funeral Safe.
Funeral Safe will provide you with a personal account login to manage your finance. Furthermore, they are available to offer any support you may need in regard to the finance and its repayments.
Our funeral finance agreement is very flexible and transparent – should you wish to settle the balance earlier than the agreement states you can do so without penalty and the interest charge will be adjusted to match the payment period.
APPLY NOW
You may seek assistance form the Department of Work and Pensions to help pay for a funeral. The Department of Work and Pensions will provide a maximum of £1000 for the funeral director’s fee and in addition a contribution to the disbursements (fees Lodge Brothers pays on your behalf i.e. crematorium fees).
Funeral Expenses Payment can help to pay for some of the costs of the following:
You can also get up to £1000 for any other funeral expenses, such as funeral director’s fees, flowers or the coffin.
The payment will not usually cover all of the costs of the funeral. How much you get depends on your circumstances. This includes any other money that’s available to cover the costs, for example from an insurance policy or the deceased’s estate.
You can get help towards the cost of a funeral if you or your partner are getting one of the following qualifying benefits:
You can also apply if you or your partner are waiting to hear about a claim for one of these benefits or payments. We use partner to mean:
You must meet the following criteria:
You may also be able to get help towards the cost of a funeral if you or your partner arranged the funeral in the European Economic Area or Switzerland. The European Economic Area countries are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the UK.
If you think you qualify and want to make an application – please complete the relevant form:
ADULT FUNERAL CHILD FUNERALCall the government’s bereavement service helpline on 0345 606 0265, or visit their website gov.uk/funeral-payments – to find out how to get help with funeral payments and if you’re entitled to any help.
This is for those clients wishing to have a traditional funeral, where the cortege starts from the home address and then travels to a church for a service and then onto the crematorium or place of burial. Alternatively the cortege can travel from the home address to the crematorium or place of burial, if the service is taking place there.
We allow up to 3 hours and 20 running miles from leaving our premises to returning, which for the majority of funerals provides enough time and distance. We can advise if more time or distance is required and discuss these options with you.
A motor hearse is provided on the day of funeral with a Funeral Conductor and four bearers to carry the coffin/casket, although sometimes family may wish to assist with the carrying. We will always provide our staff to assist and guide the family in these circumstances.
Limousines, which seat six people, can also be provided at an additional cost and we can discuss the number required with you. The hire of the limousine includes returning you to your home or an alternative local address after the funeral service.
A private ambulance will be provided with trained members of our staff, to respectfully convey your loved one from their place of death into our care.
Private Chapels of Rest are available at all of our branches and the use of these is included as is the carrying out of a temporary preservation treatment (embalming). We recommend this treatment if you are wishing to visit your loved one in the Chapel.
Our branch staff will be able to discuss and advise on all the options available to you, regarding the planning of the funeral. We will take care of organising the Church, crematorium or cemetery on your behalf and liaise with all the necessary professionals regarding the statutory paperwork that is required.
We have a wide range of coffins and caskets both in traditional and modern designs. The vast majority of which are suitable for both cremation or burial and we can advise you accordingly.
There are certain fees and disbursements charged by others, which we will advise you of and we do require these to be paid in advance of the funeral. Our own charges will then be invoiced after the funeral and we ask that this be paid within 30 days of the date of the funeral.
Our charges start from £3,565.00 depending on the coffin/casket chosen.
As a member of the National Association of Funeral Directors we offer a simple funeral service where our professional services are restricted to a minimum and include the following:
For those clients who wish to have no funeral service and no-one in attendance at the crematorium, we offer a simple cremation at a local crematorium of our choice for £2,150.00. We will take care of all the necessary arrangements in as dignified and a respectful manner as you would expect from us. Once the cremation has taken place we will return the ashes to your nearest branch for collection or arrange for them to be scattered at the crematorium.
Our services include:
This list is illustrative and not exhaustive
The only additional costs that may be incurred are for Doctor's fees (£164.00) to provide Medical Papers, which may be required for the cremation to take place, or if you request to have the deceased to be moved into our care outside of our normal working hours (£180.00). We will be able to advise you accordingly.
We require the total cost to be paid at the time of making the arrangements and in advance of the cremation taking place.
