what to do when someone dies - rights of the bereaved

Rights of the Bereaved—Protecting the Dead

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Government is not doing enough to better inform newly bereaved people about what they can do legally when someone dies in England & Wales. Neither is it ensuring that many will be familiar with their statutory consumer rights when purchasing funeral related goods and services.

Many people are unaware of the options that are available to them before making final decisions about who will care for the person who has died, and making arrangements for a funeral. This especially applies to someone bereaved because of unnatural, sudden and unexpected death.

Misunderstanding the law leads to oppression.

This website has been created as a campaigning tool to encourage both official and non official bodies;

· To produce information that will better inform newly bereaved people about their legal rights are in the immediate hours following a death.

· To adopt a policy to deliver information to newly bereaved people about what they may do privately and independent of employing an undertaker and;

· As there is no law to suggest that someone must employ an undertaker, that the information is delivered by ‘default’.

· To convince consumer bodies that they are not empowering the public (the potential funeral consumer) in a timely manner about what their consumer rights are before arranging a funeral.

· To convince both public and consumer bodies that educating people and providing knowledge and skills to make informed choices either about their private or their consumer rights, will lend to empowering people.

· To encourage that what information is delivered to newly bereaved people has not been commercially created.

With the vast majority of people purchasing the services of an undertaker, it is now time to give proper consideration to those who are forced to use these services. In law they are the ‘consumer’, in real term they are newly bereaved people and many far more vulnerable than a consumer purchasing other general goods and services.

There is information on this site that will better inform the public about what to do when someone dies, and I make obvious here what their consumer rights are.

I also offer some insight into the funeral industry itself.

Vulnerable people need impartial guidance in the critical hours of learning of a death, therefore guidance needs to be accurate on law.

Joint approaches could prevent or limit newly bereaved people from experiencing additional emotional injury.

I will continue campaigning for changes ‘top down’ and to persuade people working in central state departments to make obvious the public’s rights at common and statutory law.

The common law of England recognises both a civil & criminal offence to commit an indignity upon the dead or prevent a decent burial. This has been made obvious in the Statutes of countries that were formerly part of the British Empire. It is my intention to create a compelling and persuasive argument for it to be made obvious in the Statute of England & Wales.

Should you determine that you do not wish to read on, but would like to be aware of your private rights, I point you to the Charter for the Bereaved. The Charter is promoted by the Institute of Cemetery and Crematorium Management (ICCM). Note that some of the rights depicted in the Charter are legal rights and not simply examples of good practice agreements adopted by local authorities. http://www.myonlinedata.co.uk/iccm/?pagenumber=23

In conjunction with the Charter for the Bereaved readers might care to view a page that I have created on the Power Base website http://www.powerbase.info/index.php?title=What_to_Do_Privately_After_a_Death_in_England_or_Wales

You will gain knowledge of your consumer rights at Consumer Direct. http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/after_you_buy/know-your-rights/funerals/

Alternatively please read on ……………………………….