Mearns families are being asked to foot a “shocking” hike in council burial fees.
Families across Scotland are still struggling to afford a decent farewell for their loved ones, according to a new report by Citizens’ Advice Scotland (CAS).
The body published a league table for local authority fees, barring cash directed at funeral directors, which has seen the cost of Mearns burials rise by 42% in one year.
MSP Alex Johnstone said the sudden jump would suggest to families the increased fees are a tax on the dead.
Conservative member for the North East, Mr Johnstone said: “A 42% increase in council burial charges is shocking, and sees Aberdeenshire rocketing up the league table for all the wrong reasons.
“To impose such a sharp increase in just one year will suggest to many that this is a tax on the dead to balance the books, and leaves grieving families with a substantial bill to pay.”
Last year the number of Scots coming to a CAS because of problems with funeral costs rose by 27% from the previous year.
This year the number has risen again by 35%.
CAS spokesman Fraser Sutherland said the service has seen a massive increase in the numbers of Scots seeking advice on how to cover huge costs.
CAS’s new report, The Cost of Saying Goodbye, finds that the basic cost of burial fees in Scotland is now on average £1,273 a 10% increase since last year.
Of the 32 councils surveyed, Aberdeenshire went from 19th most expensive place to get buried to ninth.
The most expensive, East Dunbartonshire, costs £2,785, while Perth remains in sixth place at a cost of £1,746, Angus moved down one place to 14th with a cost of £1,160, Fife moved down five places to 15th on £1,155, and Dundee stayed in 16th with a cost of £1,151.
Mearns councillor George Carr said he believed a tight local authority grant from Westminster has led to councils examining the bottom line, but said the rising costs could have been applied over a longer period.
He said: “Certainly it isn’t desirable to have too big a difference across the northeast.
“But if a policy comes forward where we have to try and get a bit of parity, we should be staging that instead of bringing it in at once.
“There’s no doubt given the tight government settlement, we have to look at the bottom line.”
Aberdeenshire Council’s head of roads and landscape services, Philip McKay, said: “In previous years Aberdeenshire Council was one of the lowest charging councils in Scotland for burial charges.
“In order to better reflect the overall cost of the services provided, increased charges for 2015-16 were passed as part of the council’s revenue budget.”