Funeral Support Payment: evaluation - qualitative research

Chapter 1: Introduction

This report presents the findings of qualitative research with recipients of the Funeral Support Payment (hereafter referred to as FSP), funeral directors and relevant third sector organisations to explore their experiences of the payment. It was commissioned by the Scottish Government to inform the interim evaluaton of FSP, and was carried out by Ipsos MORI Scotland between June 2021 and February 2022.

Policy background

According to the financial services company, Sunlife, the average cost of a basic UK funeral in 2020 was £4,184. In Scotland, funeral costs were found to have risen by 5.7% between 2019 and 2020, and were projected to rise further in the coming years.^[1] These costs can be prohibitive for those on low incomes, and can be a source of distress for bereaved people during an already difficult time. Furthermore, the impact of COVID-19 on personal finances has exacerbated the situation for many experiencing a bereavement during the pandemic.

In 2016, the Scotland Act devolved benefits 'providing financial or other assistance for the purposes of meeting or reducing […] funeral expenses', meaning the Scottish Government had the power to change financial support to bereaved people for the first time.

In 2017, the Scottish Government published a ten-point Funeral Costs Plan which outlined actions it would take to tackle funeral poverty. These included: launching a new funeral expense assistance (now FSP); improving the guidance on offer to the public; strengthening consumer protection around pre-paid funeral plans; and improving the evidence base to best assess the effectiveness of policies aimed at reducing funeral poverty.

FSP was launched in September 2019 to help people on low incomes afford funerals, to reduce funeral poverty and help people who have been bereaved.

The Funeral Support Payment (FSP)

FSP is paid to one person per funeral, and applicants must be reasonably responsible for covering funeral costs. The death can be of an adult or a child (including stillbirth if the baby died after 24 completed weeks of pregnancy). Payments will generally be lower for funerals for a child, as there is no cost to cremate or bury a child across most of Scotland. The payment does not cover memorial services (if separate from the burial/cremation) or burying someone's ashes after cremation.

To be eligible, applicants must live in Scotland, and they or their partner must be in receipt of certain benefits or tax credits.^[2]

The person who died must also have lived in the UK, and the funeral must be held in the UK (or in some instances in the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland).

The payment can be paid to the bereaved person, or (at their request) to the funeral director helping with funeral planning. It usually will not cover the entire cost of the funeral. FSP can include cover for:

• a flat rate element of £1,010 (or £123.25 if the deceased had a Funeral Plan) to help towards general funeral costs^[3]
• burial or cremation costs
• travel and transportation costs
• documentation costs
• medical costs.

The average value of payment issued in the 2021/22 financial year so far is £1,799. However, the individual payment amount will vary based on factors like participation in a pre-paid funeral plan and regional variation in prices. The payment may also be less if the person who died has left any money which could be used to cover the funeral expenses. This includes any money in the person's (individual) bank account, insurance policies, funeral plans, or lump-sum payments. If the money later becomes available from the person's estate, Social Security Scotland can claim FSP back from the estate.

Evaluation of FSP

With FSP now in its third year, the Scottish Government is carrying out a policy evaluation to assess its impact and the extent to which it has met its policy goals.

There are three strands to the evaluation:

• Analysis of quantitative data from Social Security Scotland Management Information.
• Analysis of survey data from Client Surveys of Social Security Scotland clients.
• Qualitative research with FSP clients, funeral directors and third sector organisations.

Research aims and questions

Ipsos MORI Scotland was commissioned by the Scottish Government to conduct qualitative research with recipients of FSP, funeral directors and relevant third sector organisations to explore their experiences of the payment and understand its impact on bereaved families as well as on the wider funeral industry, including funeral directors and relevant third sector organistions.

The research was developed in partnership with officials at the Scottish Government and key stakeholders who were part of a wider Research Advisory Group. The findings from this research will feed into the third strand of the wider interim policy evaluation of FSP, as outlined above.

For FSP clients, the key research objectives were to understand:

• How FSP has been spent, in terms of the types of goods and services purchased and the payment method chosen (to the client or the funeral director).
• Whether and how FSP helps people on low incomes provide a respectful funeral within a reasonable timeframe, the effectiveness of FSP as a contribution towards funeral costs, clarity over what FSP does and does not cover and the impact on funeral arrangements and choices.
• Whether and how FSP helps to reduce debt for people on low incomes in relation to funeral costs, exploring its impact on household budgets and how the costs would have been covered without access to FSP.
• Whether and how FSP is helping people on low incomes progress through grief related to death, exploring its impact on grief, mental health and money-related stress.
• How clients became aware of FSP and experiences of the application process, identifying any barriers applying for, or receiving, FSP.

For funeral directors and third sector organisations, the key research objectives were to understand:

• The extent to which FSP provides clarity and assurance for Scottish funeral directors, particularly regarding eligibility and timely payment from Social Security Scotland.
• The extent to which FSP has led to changes in client behaviour in terms of their decisions on funeral arrangements and access to funerals among clients on low incomes.
• Whether funeral directors or third sector organisations believe that FSP can be improved, exploring any additional support that is or should be given to clients, confidence to support and advise clients on FSP, and preparedness to interact with clients in receipt of FSP.

Methodology

To meet the objectives of this research, qualititative research was undertaken with three key groups and comprised:

• 26 qualitative depth interviews with clients who had previously accessed FSP, to explore their experiences of applying for and receiving the payment.
• One mini group with third sector support organisations who had experience supporting clients applying for or in receipt of FSP, to explore the policy context and possible future developments.
• Six qualitative depth interviews with funeral directors who had experience delivering funeral services to clients who are eligible for FSP, to explore their views on the impact of FSP on their clients, their business and the Scottish funeral industry.

Recruitment

The recruitment of FSP clients was undertaken using an opt-in approach via the Social Security Scotland's Client Panels and gatekeeper organisations.

Early on in the fieldwork period, an invitation was sent to FSP recipients on Social Security Scotland's Client Panels.^[4] The Panels are made up of benefits applicants who (a) completed Social Security Scotland's Client Survey,^[5] and (b) agreed to be contacted about future research relating to their experience of the benefits system. Panellists were sent an invitation with details about the research and email and telephone contact details for a named member of the research team to allow clients to get in touch on their own terms.

A variety of gatekeepers were also approached in an attempt to reach FSP clients in certain groups, such as minority ethnic groups, those organising religious funerals, and those living in rural or island communities. Gatekeeper organisations that helped contact FSP clients included:

• Citizens Advice Scotland
• Funeral Link
• Glasgow Central Mosque
• Quaker Social Action

Due to difficulties reaching certain groups, further recruitment attempts were made utilising Social Security Scotland's wider database of FSP clients (excluding those already on the Client Panels). An invitation was sent to a targeted and limited sample of those in the database and followed the same approach as the panel invitation.

FSP clients were offered a £30 'thank you' payment to take part.

FSP clients who expressed interest in participating were asked to take part in a short five-minute screener call with a researcher to check that they were eligible. This also gave clients a chance to ask any questions and allowed researchers to make sure that potential participants were aware of the aims of the research, what taking part involved and how their data would be securely handled to ensure they could give informed consent to participate.

Funeral directors and relevant third sector organisations were recruited on a free-find basis i.e. directly contacting organisations found via internet searches, with support from the Scottish Government.

Sample

Twenty-six interviews were conducted with FSP clients and six interviews were conducted with funeral directors. Table 1 shows a breakdown of demographics and other characteristics of the FSP client sample. Table 2 shows a breakdown of characteristics of the funeral director sample.

Fieldwork

Interviews with FSP clients and funeral directors lasted around 45 minutes and were conducted via telephone or Zoom. The group discussion with third sector organisations lasted 90 minutes and was conducted via Zoom. All fieldwork took place between 19^th August and 21^st December 2021.

The interviews and group discussion were semi-structured and based on a discussion guide to allow open discussion with participants, while ensuring they covered all the key points. In some cases where the participant's first language was not English, a relative joined the interview to help with interpreting. In other cases, a relative joined the interview to speak on the participant's behalf due to the extent of their involvement in the funeral arrangements and FSP application. The discussion guides used with clients, funeral directors and third sector organisations are included in Annex A.

Data Analysis

A systematic thematic approach to analysis was used in order to produce findings that are clearly grounded in participants' accounts and are transparent and methodologically robust. This involved the following stages:

• Initial interviewer observations – immediately after each interview, researchers completed a proforma outlining their initial impressions of key points emerging from the interview with respect to the core research questions.
• Interim analysis meeting – the research team held an interim analysis meeting during fieldwork to identify early themes and discuss any challenges encountered.
• Post-fieldwork analysis meeting – this meeting allowed the research team to discuss the findings from all the interviews and outline key themes and issues in more detail.
• Systematic summarising of key themes – each interview was summarised (using notes and transcripts) into an agreed thematic 'framework matrix'.
• Further systematic analysis of key themes - summarising and organising the data in the way described above enables it to be systematically interrogated to identify the full range of views and compare experiences of FSP clients in different circumstances.

Scope and limitations

The aim in qualitative research is not to achieve a sample that is statistically representative of the wider population, but to identify as much diversity of lived experiences as possible from the detailed first-hand testimonies of research participants. Estimates of prevalence based on qualitative data are therefore inappropriate – as such, this report avoids quantifying language, such as 'most' or 'a few' when discussing findings from qualitative interviews.

Due to the nature of this research and the timing of the fieldwork period, there were challenges encountered when recruiting participants:

• Despite the support of gatekeeper organisations to make FSP clients aware of the research, the opt-in approach to recruitment (while appropriate and ethical) reduced the take-up, due to the reliance on participants to actively get in touch with researchers to take part.
• FSP clients were likely to be facing other stresses and pressures due to the COVID-19 pandemic which may have meant fewer being willing to take the time to take part in this research. Related to this, funeral directors were very busy during the fieldwork period which limited their ability to take part. Despite offering shorter interviews and the option to submit written feedback, the level of engagement from the industry was lower than anticipated.

A multifaceted recruitment approach ensured that the overall target number of interviews with FSP clients (25) was exceeded and the experiences of a range of recipients represented. However, there remained some under-represented groups, including men, younger people and those living in rural communities or on islands despite attempts to recruit through relevant gatekeepers and the wider Social Security Scotland client database. Additionally, fewer funeral directors (six) took part in full-length depth interviews compared to the initial target of 10, although limited feedback was also obtained in written form.

Finally, it is important to acknowledge that the evidence on the impact of FSP is based on participants' perceptions of the impact rather than on measurable data (such as validated wellbeing scales) collected before and after the implementation of FSP. The impact of COVID-19 on this research must also be acknowledged. While this was taken into account during the design and analysis of the research, and interviews were conducted with recipients arranging funerals both before and after the first UK lockdown in March 2020, it is not possible to know the true extent to which client experiences may or may not have differed had the pandemic not occurred.

Report structure and conventions

The following chapters present the key findings from the research and explore how clients became aware of FSP, their experience of the application process, how they used FSP towards the costs of the funeral and the impact of this on their financial and mental wellbeing. The impact of FSP on the wider funeral industry is also explored. Throughout the report, and at relevant points, the views of third sector organisations and funeral directors are drawn upon. The final chapter lays out the conclusions and implications from the research. Three short pen portraits, illustrating the different experiences of FSP clients, are provided at relevant points in the report (please note that some details have been changed to ensure anonymity). The topic guides used for the interviews are shown at Annex A.

Throughout the report, where applicable, differences between subgroups are drawn out, particularly in terms of:

• Equalities characteristics, such as ethnicity.
• Experiences, such as people who were affected by the death of a child or multiple deaths.
• Wider contextual factors, such as geographic location or the COVID-19 pandemic.