Renfrewshire Council

Funeral Support Payment

The Scottish Government has a benefit called the Funeral Support Payment.

This helps pay for funeral costs if you live in Scotland. You can use the payment towards funeral costs for a baby, child or adult. This includes babies who were stillborn.

It usually will not cover the full cost of the funeral but it should help pay for some costs. It can be paid either to you or the funeral director who's helping you plan the funeral.

Only one person can get Funeral Support Payment for the funeral.

You will not be eligible if you've already had other government support for the funeral, this includes:

• Funeral Expenses Payment (England or Wales)
• Funeral Payment (Northern Ireland)
• your hospital arranging and paying for your baby's funeral if you had a stillbirth.

Find out about Funeral Support Payment on the MyGov.Scot website.

Benevolent funds

Benevolent funds are charitable funds, trusts and societies established by trades, professions, religious institutes, armed or civilian services, charities or members of local communities.

Depending on where you or your family members work, or have worked in the past, you may be able to get help towards the costs of arranging a funeral from specific benevolent funds. You should contact your workplace or the workplace of the deceased to see if they can help.

If you're bereaved, you can find out what other benefits, grants or financial support you could get on the Turn2Us website.

Funerals for deceased with no family

If a person dies and  has no traceable relatives or executor,  we may be able to arrange their funeral. 

This is only when the person has died within Renfrewshire and no one else is arranging the funeral.

If the person has died outside of Renfrewshire, you should contact the council where the person has died.

The arrangements we provide will only be for a simple but dignified basic funeral. No funeral notices, service, flowers or funeral cars are provided.

We do not provide financial assistance to arrange a funeral. We will make the arrangements and use an undertaker appointed by us.

The funeral costs will be recovered from the deceased's estate and are usually paid before any other debts.

You can see a list of funerals arranged by Renfrewshire Council [282KB] since April 2014

Estates of the deceased

We do not hold any information on the value of the estate of a deceased person.

We do not trace relatives of the deceased and we do not work with any genealogists.  

If no blood relative, spouse, civil partner or cohabitant are traced, the National Ultimus Haeres Unit (NUHU) will investigate if the estate has any value after any liabilities, like debts or money owed, has been taken away.

If no one is found, the property in their estate falls to the Crown as 'ultimus haeres' (Last Heir).

Arranging a funeral 

You can get advice about arranging a funeral on the Citizens Advice Scotland website.