Many families are struggling to afford burials, as Work and Income's funeral grant fails to keep pace with rising costs.
Photo: 123rf
The grant has not increased in nearly 20 years but burial costs have jumped by more than $1000 in the past two years alone in some areas.
Taupō is one of the cheapest places to be buried at $1150 - more than $5000 less compared with New Plymouth, which is one of the most expensive.
Tauranga saw one of the biggest rises in costs over the past two years - up 48 percent to $4673 - about $500 more than the national average.
The Work and Income funeral grant was set up to help those in financial hardship and is paid to about 5000 whānau every year.
But the maximum payout is just $2280.
Haven Falls Poutama Tangihanga kaiwhakahaere Allen Pukepuke said 90 percent of his clients would apply for the grant.
It was hard to watch families go into debt to pay full funeral costs even when they got the full amount, he said.
"Costings are for the casket, for the uplift, for the embalming ... for all those base requirements and you're not even getting a third of it [covered]. It makes quite a high negative impact, mostly on the grieving family but also on the funeral director," he explained.
Funeral director Rachel Benns has 30 years of experience and said some of her clients were surprised by how little the grant covered.
She said while cremation was the cheapest option, burials were often a necessity.
"For cultural reasons a lot of people are wanting to have a burial and the grant goes nowhere near to covering even just the burial plot alone. It does leave them scrambling and it leaves them in a troubled position where they're trying to work out how they can fund that or in some cases, unfortunately, they're having to go for cremation which goes against what their culture usually does," she said.
And several crucial things like a funeral service were not included at all, Benns added.
"The irony is they require a death certificate to pay out the grant but they won't pay for the death certificate."
Pukepuke also said the grant was not paid out equally and those who had managed to put a little aside were disadvantaged.
"Who has the right to say to say to someone 'you can have it, but you can't?' Everyone. Every New Zealander should have the opportunity to have the benefits of an amount that is meaningful to the true cost of the basics required," he said.
Funeral Directors Association chief executive Gillian Boyse explained there were ways to cut costs without going down the cremation route - all that was needed was a chat with the funeral director.
"You're not required to use the funeral director's chapel, you might have a venue that you'd prefer that might be a cheaper option for you or you might want to do the flowers yourself. You might want to help dress the deceased, you might make decisions not to embalm if you don't need to view the deceased."
Stephen Dil agreed it was important to have a fitting send-off.
A funeral director for decades, he co-founded the Grief Centre 12 years ago, which provides grief and funeral counselling.
The funeral experience was often crucial for emotional processing, he said.
"If you don't have a funeral, how you meet your obligations to that person that's died? How do you acknowledge the impact they've had on your life? And how do you find the support network that you need to adjust to no longer having that important person?" he asked.
People could often feel misplaced by grief, especially if the person was a quintessential part of their life, and having that safe place to share experiences meant a lot, he said.
The Funeral Directors Association want the Work and Income grant to match the ACC grant, that offers more than $6000, with each payout tailored to the whānau's circumstances - including flowers, death certificates, burial plots and funeral services.
A spokesperson from the office of Carmel Sepuloni, the Minister for Social Development, said work was currently under way to review hardship grants, but any decisions would be budget dependent.