NZ funeral expenses claim 'total hokum'

A claim funerals in New Zealand are twice the price of those in Australia has been labelled "total hokum" by the president of the funeral directors' association.

A letter to the Otago Daily Times claimed an elderly Dunedin couple spent $20,000 on two pre-paid funerals, as it was the "current rate".

The letter-writer, who requested anonymity, supplied advertisements from South Australia, where he lives.

These included "all inclusive cremation" starting at $NZ4773, as well as cheaper options.

"This is an outrage against fair trading. Is this industry so greedy that they can charge this sort of money and get away with it? No wonder people are moving out of New Zealand," the letter said.

Funeral Directors Association of New Zealand president Tony Garing, of Christchurch, said the average funeral cost $7000 to $10,000.

There were also much cheaper options; $2500 for the most basic.

Cut-price funerals were increasingly in demand, presumably because of hard economic times, he said.

Funeral directors subsidised funerals for the most vulnerable people as a "social service" , as the $1925 Work and Income grant did not cover the most basic funeral, Mr Garing said.

He found it hard to believe the Dunedin couple had had to spend $10,000 each, and said families were sometimes refunded part of what had been prepaid.

Anyone organising a funeral should be wary of cheap quotes, as some funeral businesses did not include all the costs involved.

People should ensure the quoted price included everything they expected.

He believed Australian funeral costs were roughly on a par with New Zealand, including cut-price options.

It was "total hokum" to claim funerals across the board were cheaper, although he acknowledged the two countries' industries had some key differences.

Compared with New Zealand, the Australian industry was more than three times the size, and much more heavily regulated, he said.

Regulation, which varied from state to state, was driven by unions.

Union influence meant more people were employed in the Australian industry, where workers' duties were strictly stipulated and employees were less able to "multi-task". In New Zealand, funeral directors' salaries tended to be higher, because they carried out a range of duties, he said.

eileen.goodwin@odt.co.nz

 

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