The cost of dying is adding to the cost of living crisis, leading to high demand nationwide for information on how to organise affordable, dignified funerals.
The Death Without Debt NZ campaign will present a national workshop tour this month, including a Dunedin session on July 16.
Death Without Debt spokesman Fergus Wheeler said, according to the Ministry of Health, the average cost of a funeral in New Zealand was about $10,000.
"[However] DIY funerals can be done for just over $1000 if people know how, and official paperwork requirements and funeral industry tactics don’t trip people up," he said.
"We’re pushing for the government to fix the paperwork system, not just because it’s stopping DIY, but because the industry is overcharging for it.
The workshops cover everything from writing a will to probate, as well as funeral planning and practicalities.
Mr Wheeler said that if people could talk about death they were halfway there.
Communities and marae can ease the way, both emotionally and financially, for the bereaved by establishing networks of people.
Death Without Debt wants doctors to stop automatically referring families to the funeral industry to get official paperwork requirements done and to instead do it themselves.
"Pre-cremation paperwork, in particular, has always been a medical responsibility.
"Now even registering a death is difficult."
"Our communities have lost the know-how to farewell the dead ourselves."
Death Without Debt wants the Health and Disability Commission to explicitly include after-death duty-of-care in its 2024 review.
- The Dunedin funeral workshop by Death Without Debt, Tuesday, July 16, 10am-2pm, Baptist Community centre, 270 North Rd, North East Valley. $40 including booklet, or koha for those in hardship. www.deathwithoutdebt.org
