2023-11-01 09:37:23
BarcelonaWhat happens when a family cannot pay the expenses of a burial? Or when a person dies with no money and no one to take care of them? These are charity burials, which can be free or subsidized, depending on income. In Catalonia, according to Asfuncat, the Catalan employers’ association of funeral homes, last year there were 1,702, with an average of four each day, which represents 2.7% of the total. And although they do not have data on the evolution, they do note an increase in demand. Barcelona City Council has quantified the increase: between 2019 and 2022 there have been 45% more free burials: it has gone from 144 to 210, while in terms of subsidies the increase has been much more pronounced, from 69 to 121, 75%. The turning point is the first year of the pandemic, but the upward trend remains constant. All in all, the increase is more moderate than what there was with the financial crisis a decade ago, when this type of burials doubled in the city, also coinciding with the increase in VAT from 8% to 21 %.
The charity burials are basically reserved for “flyers or single people”, details the coordinator of social services at the Igualada City Council, Montse Montrabeta. The law establishes the obligation of direct relatives or designated heirs to pay the costs, which average around 3,500 euros. It is not easy to get rid of a death in the family, and in very few cases it is excused from this obligation. “When there is family, the family pays for it”, assures Montrabeta, who is used to managing emergency situations and who is not at all surprised, she says, that charity represents such a low percentage, despite the fact that one in five Catalans lives in poverty and that a third of the families cannot cope with an unexpected 700 euros.
Vulnerability social report
A decree of the year 1999 establishes that the competence of funeral services belongs to the town councils and, therefore, they are the ones who must guarantee that all the dead receive a dignified burial and in good conditions. From the Sant Joan de Déu Foundation, Teresa Bermúdez confirms that almost only the “most complicated” cases go to charity, because even when the deceased had broken ties with parents or children, they agree to pay the bill because they feel the need to do “one last act in favor of the deceased, to reconcile”, and also because they consider that misunderstanding at this moment is “an abandonment or too great an emotional burden for them”.
Thus, families do their best and do not hesitate to ask for money from other relatives or friends or to go into debt, point out social workers consulted by the ARA. It should also be noted that confidence in death insurance is still alive, which according to a 2021 study by the Spanish Union of Insurance and Reinsurance Companies (UNESPA), in Catalonia ranges from 40% coverage to demarcation of Tarragona and 25% of Lleida. “If necessary, they take it out of the food, but they don’t stop paying the dead,” explains Montrabeta based on his experience of observing family expenses when making vulnerability reports.
One of the groups most affected by the end of life is that of foreign origin, even if they have been settled in Catalonia for years. They are the ones who take out death insurance no matter how little they earn. As the secretary of the Hyda mosque in Martorell, Aisha Rabie makes a point of insisting “to everyone that they pay the insurance for the parents and also for the small children”, which covers them even the repatriation of the corpse, for ensure that the body is treated respectfully with the precepts of Islam. In the absence of insurance, the community responded with collections, and in a few days 6,000 euros were raised to send the body to Morocco. In the Maghreb country, moreover, graves are not subject to any tax or rent, so that after years it is cheaper to die. “Nobody wants a friend to end up in a mass grave,” notes Bermúdez.
No vigil or transfer
The decree on charity burials states that, once the file has been approved, the funeral company must offer the basic services, which are limited to the transfer of the deceased from the place where he died to the cemetery in the same city, and a basic coffin. It is up to the city council to have a temporary niche that will house the remains for a few years (in Barcelona, two) in case someone claims them. If there is no one to pay the fees and rent, the remains will be removed to an ossuary. For poor people for whom no one pays for the burial, there is no right to a vigil room, where friends and relatives remember them before the burial, because this space “is not a basic service”, they point out from Asfuncat , who remembers that Catalonia is the only community where funeral homes must cover the expenses of the beneficiaries of the charity.
Precisely, the six social organizations promoting the homelessness law, currently under debate in Parliament, demand that the right to the provision of the mortuary service be recognized, which will include the provision of a vigil room, for a minimum period of three hours , and oratory for a minimum period of 30 minutes. The benefit also does not include the transfer from one municipality to another, so the burial takes place in the same area of the mortuary address (hospital, socio-health center, private house or public road), and this municipality takes care of it, not where the dead person was residing or registered.
#Free #burials #grow #Barcelona