Issue 12 - March 1999
Contents
The Cost of Dying
Passport costs
Chairman's Letter
Mobile Phone Survey
Consumer Tales
Electricity Competition
Food Focus
Trading Standards
Safe Devon for Children
Exeter Consumer Group
The Cost of Dying - £1,000 plus
The average cost of a basic funeral is now £1,100. Small wonder, then, that the trend is towards more simple funerals.
Most of us try to avoid thinking about funerals unless we have to! Increasingly, however, some people are paying for their own funerals in advance rather than leave the bills to be sent to their relatives after their death.
The Office of Fair Trading will report soon on its study of the larger funeral firms. The Treasury has just issued for consultation a paper on the Regulation of Prepaid Funerals. Our National Federation (NfCG) is interested in developments.
ExChecker therefore considered it timely to carry out some research into local funeral directors.
We wanted to see how they are faring now that the larger firms, the Co-op and the American-owned SCI, between them have about 40% of the funeral market.
We sent a questionnaire to 46 funeral firms in the area bounded by Okehampton to the west, Tiverton to the north, Seaton to the east and Teignmouth to the south. We received replies from 18 and are very grateful to those who took the trouble to complete our form at their busiest time of year.
Some of the largest firms did not reply, which was a pity. But the 18 firms who did respond include firms based in nearly all the main towns in the area, and may be regarded as reasonably representative.
Our main findings were:
This information relates primarily to cremations.
The firms who responded to our survey all described themselves as independent family businesses, the majority of which were more than 50 years old, and two more than 100. None had changed hands in the past three years. Most of the FIRMS had just one branch, although a few had additional branches in East Devon and Teignbridge. The majority conducted on average between two and five funerals a week, while only three had more than this. Half the directors reported an increase in the number of funerals in the past three years whilst eight said that it had remained the same. Only one reported a decline.
Although the firms belonged to a number of different trade associations and other bodies, there seemed to be fairly general agreement on what should be the 'basic funeral' which the industry has set out in recent years in its codes of practice. (See inset panel.) As can be seen, this 'basic funeral' is a tightly drawn plan, and many people would require rather more to be done if the funeral is to meet their requirements. They might ask for one or more cars for family members, flowers, notices in the paper, viewing of the deceased at times convenient to the family, a service in church as well as at the crematorium. All these things will naturally cost more.
The funeral director also arranges and pays for those essential elements which are outside his control, i.e. the crematorium, which has its own separate fee, the doctors' certificates (two for a cremation), the minister, and perhaps other items. These payments are called 'disbursements', and form part of the written estimate generally provided to the person ordering the funeral and of the final account.
The Average Cost of a Basic Exeter Cremation
The average figure shown above was derived from a range of prices which extended from around £900 to £1500. With the most expensive costing 66% more than the cheapest, there is a considerable variation here, which could be said to encourage choice — except that the average customer in these circumstances has neither time nor inclination to enquire of more than one or two firms.
Prices up by 15% since 1996
We asked firms to say how the price of the basic funeral, including disbursements, had risen in the last three years. The figures provided by the 17 who replied to this question showed that on average the price had gone up from £950 in January 1996 to nearly £1,100 in January 1999. This represents a rise of just under 15%..
One director commented that the costs of the disbursements had risen faster than those of the funeral firms, with crematoria fees up by 20 per cent, doctors' fees up by 13 per cent, clergy fees by nearly 30 %. Funeral firms had only raised their own prices by 8 to 10 per cent.
What the Basic Funeral Includes
Making all the necessary arrangements, including provision of advice, and staff, and the services of the funeral director.
Passport Nightmare
Since last October, the Passport Office has decided - with the minimum of publicity - that children need their own passports. This means that a mother who is renewing a passport which previously covered three children as well is now required to pay not just the £21 fee for renewing her own passport, but a further £33 for three separate child passports at £11 each.
But paying for the passports is only part of the story. You must also fill in the forms correctly, a tiresome business, which involves putting letters in tiny individual boxes and being alert to thr fierce warnings about wrongdoing - like letting the signature stray outside the box. \This will invalidate the application and, as in snakes and ladders, you will slither to the bottom and have to start again. Then if, in the struggle to use the photobooth to take a picture of the baby, you find you have failed to sweep aside the coloured curtain, this counts as a failure too. A photo with a non-white background will send you slithering back to the bottom again.
You can seek advice from the Passport Office, but this is likely to lead to an interminable time "hanging on" to an 0870 number which has accepted your call and starts the bill ticking up at the rate of 8p per minute. The Passport Office may then suggest you viisit one of their High Street agents and get them to check your application. You can do this at the main Post Office, Lloyds Bank, for example - but if you do you will be charged a further £3.20 for their services in checking the application. But even this is cheaper than going back to the Passport Office to have your passport dealt with that day - this will set you back a further £10 handling fee.
The organisation which is responsible for these outrageous charges and practices flaunts a Charter Mark on its information leaflet. The Passport Office should be stripped of its Charter Mark and made to rethink its whole approach to the paying customer.
We Need Your Help
The number of shops offering mobile phones and phone deals in Exeter has been growing month by month.
Now that Christmas is over and the market is settling down it would seem that a thorough survey of this relatively new market should be carried out so that the 'consumer' has clear advice to help his/her choice in future.
If YOU own a mobile phone, or if you know someone who does — would you or they be prepared to complete a questionnaire so that the total results will help others?
If this is the case, PLEASE phone/fax/write to one of the officers listed on the back page. As well as agreeing to complete a questionnaire, we would welcome views about any particular aspects we should investigate e.g. coverage,, or 'bidden' costs.
Hello! - to our regular readers - we appreciate your continuing support. To any new readers, we hope you approve of the things we are doing and will consider joining our membership. The broader the coverage our surveys can gain, the more accurate will be the results.
I must draw your attention to the plea for help about Mobile Phones in the column on the left. If you have one, please consider participating in our survey. If you are thinking about acquiring one, then tell us what you would really like to know!
Your Executive does need to know how many of our members might contribute to a survey before deciding to go ahead with this piece of research - so please get in touch.
Yours, Geoffrey Philpotts
P.S. I am pleased to say that Somerfield has now joined Sainsbury's in implementing early the recommended colour codes for milk cartons.
Tales of Everyday Consumer Life
Supermarket Wars
The ding-dong battle for market share between Tesco and Sainsbury which we have been reading about in the national press suddenly became real locally.
At the entrance to Tesco's store at Rydon Lane, Exeter, were four large boxes — two containing 40 items bought at Tesco, and two containing 40 identical or near identical items bought at Sainsbury. The bills for both boxes were pinned up, the goods costing £57.58 at Sainsbury and £54.66 at Tesco. Save £2.92, crowed the caption. Since then Tesco has promised even more price cuts.
A concerned consumer points out that Tesco's Extra Chunky Minestrone Soup makes a cunning use of the asterisk to conceal its GM content.
The label states that it contains maize starch*. Only by looking much lower down — several lines below - do you discover that the * means genetically modified.
New Laws governing the sale of analgesics
The law relating to sales of paracetamol and aspirin tablets has now changed to mean:
But DCC Trading Standards remain concerned that the Medicines Control Agency has not addressed the comments made during consultation. There are still no limits on the number of packs sold in any one transaction, or the pack size for effervescent tablets, granules and sachets, or any age restriction for purchasers.
Organic Foods
More foods claiming to be 'organic' are now appearing on supermarket shelves.
But consumers should beware. Our general concern about the safety of our food, fuelled by the BSE crisis and by the debate over genetic modification, may mean that we jump out of the frying pan into the fire. Doves Farm Organic Rice Pops, sold in supermarkets such as Sainsbury's, contains more sugar than its non-organic counterparts.
As Food Magazine points out, the Soil Association does not have nutritional criteria for their accreditation schemes. So long as the contents have been 'organically grown' there is little control over their use.
Shops that put us at risk
A Northants food survey found that over 12% of shops covered were selling potentially dangerous out-of-code stock.
An Anglesey consumer, who regularly drew such problems to the attention of his local Kwik-Save store. found himself banned from the store. Apparently they did not want 'dissatisfied customers' and thought this was the way to tackle the dissatisfaction.
In our survey of funeral directors, more than half told us that at least 75 per cent of their customers had clear ideas of what they wanted for most aspects of a funeral. And almost all of them reported that the basic funeral had become more popular with customers over the past three years and the more elaborate funeral less popular.
Most directors also reported that their customers increasingly preferred their own choice of minister or priest to take the funeral, rather than the 'duty priest' at crematoria. One or two elaborated on this view by saying 'we try to get the vicar of the parish', or, in the case of non-churchgoers, one director said he generally talked the family into having a local lay minister. This evidence seems to contradict one view expressed at the Church of England Synod last year, that clergy were being by-passed by the funeral industry.
Directors split evenly as to whether having a service in church first, before cremation, was more or less popular. The majority reported that burials in churchyards were becoming less popular, but this may be due to shortage of space in cemeteries and churchyards, especially in Exeter.
The majority also reported that Humanist-type funerals were becoming more popular. Green funerals in woodlands remained about the same. A majority also reported that prepaid funerals were becoming more popular (see column, right, for further details).
Cremetoria Cheaper Outside Exeter
One point raised by funeral directors who responded to our questionnaire was the widely varying costs of using different crematoria in Devon and Somerset. It did not prove straightforward to follow up these comments by obtaining comparative costs at this time of year since privately run crematoria tend to increase their charges in January whilst local authority crematoria put theirs up in April. However, it does appear that Exeter Crematorium, which is operated by SCI on a long lease from the City Council, is the most expensive crematorium in the area. As shown on page 2 it charges £275. Torquay is the next most expensive at £220 — considerably less than Exeter. Taunton charges £186, rising shortly to £198; and Barnstaple £185, also to rise shortly. Torquay is the only one of the four which does not include an organist within the basic charge.
All crematoria have had to be modernised in recent years to meet the requirements of the latest Environmental Protection Act, and this explains to some extent the costs involved in using them. Funeral directors in and around Exeter do not generally have the time to send funerals to Taunton to take advantage of the lower costs there, but we heard at least one view that the Exeter area should be served by a second crematorium to provide some competition to SCI.
There is no doubt that SCI is a talking point among some funeral directors. SCI inherited the lease on Exeter Crematorium when it took over the Great Southern group of funeral firms in 1994. Exeter City Council continues to run a Crematorium Advisory Panel, on which one elected councillor sits. This acts as a channel of communication with SCI, but it is not an executive body. Along with the crematorium SCI acquired four firms of funeral directors in the area covered by this survey. But it has not added to this number since 1994, and it appears that SCI is not intending to follow an active policy of expanding ownership locally.
A Charter for the Dead
If our survey on funeral charges and practice makes you think twice about your own personal arrangements or lack of them, you might be interested to read a document prepared by the National Funerals College in Bristol: 'The Dead Citizen 's Charter'.
It makes a very large number of suggestions for improving funerals, and having them more prepared in advance and more personal The report says that many funerals take place without an informed and thoughtful appreciation of the life just ended.
Copies of the report can be obtained from the College at 3 Priory Road, Clifton, Bristol, B58 1TX, price £5.00. Michael Pentreath (telephone number on back page) also has a copy of this report — and of the Treasury Consultative document on prepaid funerals (see column, right) which he would be prepared to lend to EDCG members.
Prepaid Funerals
Age Concern and SCI (See main piece on this page) are partners in a company which offers prepaid funerals. Age Concern owns 25 per cent of the company and 75 per cent is owned by a subsidiary of SCI. Their brochure says that the funds contributed by participants in the scheme are held in a trust fund which guarantees their security
Three schemes are on offer — one costing just over £1,000; a second about £1,300; and a third about £1700. If you take out such a plan you would normally be allocated to a local funeral director who is part of the SCI organisation. The brochure also states that 'most people are happy for us to recommend a local funeral director with whom we currently work. However, if you would like to request a specific funeral director, please call us to discuss your requirements. We will do everything we can to accommodate your choice.'
Age Concern is not the only organisation offering such plans. The National Association for Prepaid Funeral Plans has a number of firms in membership and more information can be obtained from 618 Warwick Road, Solihull, West Midlands.
The Treasury is taking an interest in this area at the moment and has published a consultation paper on Regulation of the Prepaid Funeral Industry.
According to the document there are some 600,000 funerals in the UK each year, and each year an estimated 40-50,000 prepaid funeral plans are sold. It says that prepaid funerals cost on average £1,200 — a similar figure to that found by our survey for the cost of basic funerals in the Exeter area.
A bill now before Parliament will contain powers for the Treasury to bring all prepaid funeral plans within the scope of regulation by the Financial Services Authority.
But the Treasury does not believe that all firms providing funeral plans need to be brought into the ESA net. The document offers the industry the chance to come up with an alternative.
Casting Light on Electricity Competition
EDCG's Commission from Devon Trading Standards
As you will probably remember from an earlier issue of ExChecker, Devon County (Council made a grant to EDCG for which we are most grateful) to enable us to develop information about electricity competition, produce a leaflet (sent to EDCG members in February) and to make this available free of charge to enquirers.
Their grant has also paid for a telephone hot line — 01392-6684 78 — where requests can be left. If you would like more copies of the leaflet for family or friends — do ring and request them.
To Change or Not to Change
Our research shows how it may be possible to save up to about £20 per year if you switch your supplier now. The new leaflet shows prices calculated on the basis of average consumption across the country — both for standard domestic supply, and for Economy 7 space heating. We also show how some companies offer a special deal if you buy both electricity and gas from them.
Is it worth changing?
OFFER, the electricity regulator, says that for the typical customer their existing supplier will in general be charging amongst the highest prices in the area. The average customer can save money by switching supplier.
But before making up your mind, it is worth working out your own annual consumption, and talking to the company of your choice, using the contact numbers on the leaflet and asking some of the questions we pose.
You should also bear in mind that SWEB, our regional electricity supplier has promised to reduce its prices by 3 per cent this year. This will make the SW playing field even more level than it is at present.
2,000 Leaflets Printed
So far we have distributed over 1,000 leaflets to public libraries, citizens advice bureaux, Age Concern branches. trading standards offices, and to many organisations in and around Exeter.
When we launched the leaflet in February. Westcountry TV interviewed one of our committee, John Matthews. John told viewers how we had gathered information from the companies over many weeks. When we sent the draft leaflet back to them for checking, several admitted they had sent the wrong information!
SWEB's Price Pledge
SWEB made their promise to cut prices by 3% this year back last October. Recently, at a meeting of the SW Electricity Consumers' Committee, with SWEB managers present, this cut was confirmed for April 1st 1999.
SWEB management also said that the cuts would benefit all classes of user, no matter how they pay. SWEB has already made one adjustment this year to its price for electricity — but only for those who pay by direct debit. The discount for them rose from 2% to 3% on 1 Jan.
Door to Door Selling
We would like to hear from members about approaches by companies looking for business in the South West. Door to door selling can be helpful if properly carried out, and the SW Consumers' Committee for Electricity wants to avoid the poor practice that was associated with gas competition.
SW Electricity Consumers Committee
hear SWEB's View of the Future
The recent meeting of the SW Electricity Consumers' Committee, at which EDCG was represented, heard a presentation from SWEB managers on plans for the next 5 years. SWEB has succeeded in reducing its operating costs by 45% since 1995, but future productivity improvements were likely to be in the region of only 2 per cent a year at best.
One new cloud on the horizon, however, was a threat by the government to alter the methodology used in calculating the business rate paid by all electricity companies. In SWEB's case, if the change goes through, their rates bill would be more than doubled — from £15m in 1997/8 to £35m in 2000/01. SWEB said that they were vigorously challenging this change, and making all endeavours to reduce the cost liability on the company.
Among recent changes in the company, the number of call centres had been reduced from six to just one, based in Exeter, with a sophisticated messaging facility to use during storm conditions. Customers could phone in to Exeter for the cost of a local call from anywhere in the region. While in the past SWEB had had one of the worst records for customer complaints, it now had the best. A new meter reading business had also been established, with the result that meter readings were more accurate and timely. The number of estimated bills sent out was down from 65% to 22%
SWEB has to run an efficient business despite having the longest length of main cables per customer of all its rivals and the second greatest length of overhead line. This helps to explain why SWEB is able to sell electricity more cheaply to potential customers in the NW and the South of England than to us, a point brought out m the recent Which? report.
The message from the meeting was that SWEB was not resting on its laurels, but pressing on with further improvements, including a 10 per cent reduction in interruptions by 2004/5, and a similar cut in minutes lost per customer. They expect they will have to increase staff and run a full shift system to achieve this.
Devon
Trading Standards
and Consumer Protection
Food Focus Meeting
Twelve local citizens, including four EDCG members, went to a training session on 4th February. to be guided through the new maze of regulations on Food Safety. The 'brief summary provided filled 67 pages.
Steve Butterworth, the Director, began by explaining how budgets have been cut while the Trading Standards workload has steadily increased. The latest addition would be the Food Standards Agency. Their only means of dealing with the growing load was to tram consumers knowingly to assist in their work — hence the training session.
Other members of the Trading Standards team — Joan Northrop, Ken Endacott, Nicky May and Paula Davies - made the consumer trainees feel part of the family, and were joined by Environmental Health Officer Mark Curgenven from North Devon. Together, they led the group through the food chain, from fertilisers and animal feeds through manufacture to health and safety in shops.
When you buy a fertiliser for your greens and they do badly, how do you know whether the fertiliser is at fault?
Farm fertilisers can now be tested. There is concern over the way elements that can pass from animal feedstuffs through the food chain may affect us.
Are you aware that bright yellow egg yolks are not natural? You are eating an unnecessary additive. Will overuse of antibiotics in feed lead to a more pervasive problem even than BSE? Animal passports are tackling the BSE problem so that you should soon know where your beef came from. Apply pressure until you are told.
In the shops, the big issue is labelling. Manufacturers are trying to sell us cheap tasty food with high profit margins. The label needs to protect you from being ripped off. However, there was a general feeling that labelling was getting out of hand. There is a mass of small print but important things are missing e.g. small levels of contamination from causes of allergic reactions such as peanuts. We were interested in GM. The whole issue needs a rethink.
At the opposite end of the chain, there is risk whenever a food is handled that is to be consumed without further cooking.
Sandwich bars and delicatessens selling cooked meats were singled out, though small butchers who dealt both with cooked and raw meats create the most hazards. Proper training is the key. The law requires new recruits to be trained within three months. How much illness might be caused in that time?
And bacterial contamination is now serious. Many think that we became immune to problems in the old days by being less clean. Unfortunately bacteria evolve, and the immune systems of babies and older citizens are no match for recent more virulent strains.
Food Safety Quiz
THe best safeguards are based on common sence and understanding - which is why our little group of consumers was being trained. Can you answer the following four questions?
Question 1 - Should raw meat be kept at the top or the bottom of the fridge?
Question 2 - How much cream is there in supermarket whole milk and why may we not see it?
Question 3 - You buy a burger for 90p from a stall and it is tough. Can you complain?
Question 4 - You are allergic to dairy products and you ask for a chicken sandwich to be made with margarine. But you became ill. Why might this have happened?
Check your answers at the bottom of this web page.
Paying for the Food Standards Agency
The Government proposes to charge every food trader, whether Sainsbury's or a corner shop, the same £90 levy to meet the cost of the FSA. The figure is obtained if the £41 million needed to run the FSA is divided by the number of outlets in the country. For a small village post office £90 could be several day's profits. It might close, leading to more traffic on rural roads. Farmers' markets such as the one in Cullompton featured in ExChecker six months ago, may become unviable. Many farm gate sales will disappear. Ice Cream kiosks may vanish. If you find this unacceptable - write to your MP, proposing as an alternative that the FSA should be funded from Business Rates.
Towards a Healthier and Safer Devon - For Children
Trading Standards' 1998 Toys Safety Survey
In the last issue of ExChecker we reported on the legislative framework intended to protect consumers from buying toys which could present hazards to young children.
DCC Trading Standards undertook a survey to check on toys, particularly at the cheaper end of ranges, to see whether they conformed to safety requirements. Disturbingly, they found that 1 in 10 of the toys tested presented a real risk to children.
Ride On Toys — 7 out of the 24 tested failed. The most common failure was over places where a child's fingers or toes could be trapped. But some, including a child's swing, failed strength checks.
Heavy Metals — 2 of the 30 painted toys tested were found to contain excessively high heavy metal levels within the paint. One of the thirty samples of pencils, crayons, and other drawing materials tested contained a high level of lead.
Other Failures to meet standards — the samples tested also failed to conform in other ways, such as through labelling defects, or by having small detachable parts which pose a choking hazard, or, in one case, by being packed in a large thin polythene bag which could suffocate a young child.
The DCC Community Safety Subcommittee expressed their grave concern about the continuing abuse of the CE mark, which is meant to offer an assurance of safety, and have raised the matter with the Minister for Consumer Affairs.
Acids in Soft Drinks
Another recent DCC survey tested 20 samples of soft drinks likely to be consumed by children. 9 of the 20 contained levels of acid high enough to be considered aggressively acid and lead in the longer term to dental erosion.
The Committee is now seeking partners to explore options aimed at reducing the effects of acids in drinks.
This edition of ExChecker may have been passed you by a friend or colleague, or you may have picked it up yourself just to flick We would like you to stop for a few minutes and consider our proposition:
Join Exeter and District Consumer Group — you CAN make a difference
Do you get angry when someone ahead of you in the 10 items queue has 20 items? Are you concerned that you Can't keep to the recommended daily limit for salt because manufacturers include more than they need? Have you been subjected to a 'computer error' only to be told that 'the system can't be wrong'?
Do you feel that one lone voice will be ignored, so there is no point in complaining? A group acting together, however, can make suppliers/governments/manufacturers listen.
You Can Make Thingsd Different - by . . .
joining your local group, the Exeter and District Consumer Group. Simply to receive information and provide (silent) support, if that is what you wish. But we'd be delighted - and more powerful - if you want to be more active and take part in our surveys, write to shops and manufacturers, appear in the media, or lobby politicians. It's interesting, exciting, and fun
— and it gives a real sense of achievement when 'they' change thing's to make it easier for 'us'!
As well as ExChecker, the Group's own quarterly Newsletter, you'll also receive the Newsletter of the National Federation of Consumer Groups (NfCG), keeping you in touch with all the latest consumer news at national and regional level.
Our subscription is only £8.00 a year - equivalent to 15p a week - a small price to pay to help protect your interests!
If you are interested, fill in the application form overleaf and send it off today.
Question 1 - the bottom
Question 2 - about 3.5%, it may be homogenised (this may not be on the label)
Question 3 - What do you expect for 90p?
Question 4 - Perhaps the sandwich was made with reformed chicken that uses a milk derivative as a binder.