What is included in a direct cremation

The phrase “direct cremation” is used by every provider and defined by none of them, and families reading three websites come away unsure whether there is a coffin, whether their loved one is embalmed, or what they are actually paying for. This is the list, item by item, as it applies to ours and to any honest provider’s, and then the things a direct cremation deliberately does not include.

What is included

The collection. Your loved one is collected from the hospital, home, care home or hospice and brought to the funeral director’s premises. With us that is at any hour and included as a standard collection; some providers include only a hospital collection and charge for a home.

Their care. Between the collection and the cremation your loved one is cared for at a chapel of rest, in a cool room, by people whose job it is. Ours are in London and in Nottinghamshire, and you can ask any provider where theirs is.

A coffin. A simple one, suitable for cremation, usually veneered wood or a strong cardboard. A cremation in the UK is always of a person in a coffin. The coffin is inside our price; check whether it is inside anyone else’s.

The paperwork. The application for cremation, which you sign; the registrar’s or the coroner’s certificate, which we obtain; the crematorium’s booking. Direct cremation step by step explains each document.

The transport to the crematorium. In the funeral director’s own vehicle, on the day. Not a hearse, and no procession.

The cremation fee. What the crematorium charges for the cremation itself, paid by the funeral director on your behalf. Ours are City of London and Babworth.

The ashes returned. In a container or an urn, handed back to you. Some providers charge for delivery; ours is included, and we arrange the handover when we ring to tell you the cremation has taken place.

What is deliberately not included

A service. No ceremony at the crematorium, no chapel booking, no celebrant, no music. That is the definition, and it is where a third of the cost of a traditional funeral goes.

Attendance. No one from the family is present at the crematorium. Can you attend a direct cremation draws that line exactly, including the one thing you can add, a viewing at the chapel of rest beforehand, which with us is £150.

Embalming. Not needed for a direct cremation, because there is no viewing over several days and no open coffin, and not done unless a family asks for a viewing and the funeral director judges it necessary. A traditional funeral with a viewing usually involves it.

The two questions that separate providers

Every provider’s list looks like the seven above. Two questions tell you whether it is the same list.

Does the price include collection from a home, or only from a hospital? Several national providers add a charge, sometimes hundreds of pounds, for collecting from a home, and a death at home is common. Ours is included as a standard collection; only an urgent collection inside a fixed window is charged, at £250.

Where will my loved one be cared for, and how far from home is the crematorium? A provider that collects from anywhere in Britain and cremates at one or two sites of its own can take your loved one a long way from where they lived. Ours stays in the area: London families at City of London, Nottinghamshire and Doncaster families at Babworth.

What it costs

Everything in the first list is inside our £1,295, and the price is fixed. How much does a direct cremation cost sets the figure against the national averages and explains the two things, the viewing and an urgent collection, that can be added and nothing else. Why families choose direct cremation is the other half of the question, which is not what it includes but why a family would want exactly that.