Cremation cost at Roselawn Cemetery in Belfast to rise by 25%
The cost of dying is to increase this year by a massive amount at the crematorium in Belfast. Northern Ireland has only one crematorium which has been completely re-furbished with two more furnaces up to a total of four.
They have had to open early and close later to cope with the increase of customers since it was built 20 years ago. The Northern Ireland Assembly are going to build a new one 20 miles away in the town of Moira , and also another on the other side of Belfast ( where i live ) so that’s handy.
A forth is being thought about in the City of Omagh, County Tyrone
The council currently charges £198 for an adult cremation at Roselawn, but from 1 April this is set to rise to £248.
For cremating a child under 16, they charge £112 at the moment. This is going to rise to £140.
The cost of cremations for people from outside Belfast is already higher, but these charges are also rising by 10%.
For instance, it costs £437 for an adult living outside Belfast to be cremated there at present, but this is rising to £480.
The Department for Social Development operates a funeral payment grant from the Social Fund to help people pay for funeral costs
People who are on a range of benefits and tax credits can apply for the grant
In 2011, 1,711 funeral payments were paid out and the average grant was £995
The committee decided to recommend that most charges for burials and graves would rise by between 4% and 6%. So no matter how you are being buried it will cost more. And for people who have no insurance or saving this is going to be very hard to find.
dribblingpensioner 
This all sound pretty drastic Harry. It also somehow doesn’t seem fair to charge folk extra because they live outside the area when they don’t have any other accessible crematorium. All in all I think the cost of burial and cremation need to be looked into – I suspect the costs don’t measure up on any level. Interesting post. Thanks for this.
The cost is far to dear but what can you do, dig a hole in the back garden for all i care when i pop my cork:lol:
Harry, if you hadn’t put that BBC link there I would have thought you made it up. 😀
Its like something i would make up 🙂
seems only the rich can afford dying these days…so what else is new
At least we will not have a three hour church service, a choir, a silver coffin and a gold car 🙂
you know you can buy cardboard coffins these days…cheaper and biodegradable
I know that JO, but they would bend in the middle with my fat ass 😆
I guess they’ll blame on the rising price of petroleum? What next!
Or the price of gas for the furnace 🙂
So true, lol!
Hmmm-I guess folks may have to figure out how to die before April 1st to keep things within budgets. 🙂
chlost good idea 🙂
This is why I never plan to die, it’s too expensive.
Vilipend, build your own furnace that would be cheaper.
I’m donating any organs that still work after I’m done with them, then donating the rest of me to science. After the med students are done with me, they cremate me (good thing) and send the ashes back to whomever will take them–all free of charge. And who said I wasn’t a thoughtful mother/sister/friend/lover?
Lorna, i read about that last week, donate your body to science and you get a FREE funeral, but that could be two or three years down the line.