Frequently asked questions

Central Co-op Funeral Plans guarantee that third-party fees and charges are included in the plan you choose, as well as the Funeral Director fees and the cremation or burial service. This is no matter how much funeral costs may rise in the future. Not all other providers or insurance policies can do this.

Our funeral plans are available to anyone 18 or over and there is no maximum age restriction.

Yes you can take out a plan on behalf of someone else. You would be our customer and the person whom the plan is for would be the Covered Individual.

No, there are no medical questions or medical examinations required when applying for any of our funeral plans, regardless of whether you have any existing medical conditions.

Yes. You can tell us which Central Co-op funeral home you’d prefer to use when we set up the plan and we’ll do everything we can to accommodate your request. If you don’t have a preference or tell us who you’d like to use, we’ll allocate the closest Central Co-op funeral home (to the Covered Individual’s current address) for the funeral.

When taking out a funeral plan you can choose to nominate someone known as your nominated representative who can be informed of your funeral plan and its details. This is the person who is likely to put the plan in motion when the funeral is required. This could be a family member, friend or someone else.

The plans provided by Central Co-op Funeral Plans are fully guaranteed, meaning once paid, there’s nothing more to pay for the chosen products and services in your plan. There may be additional charges for the person arranging the funeral if additional products or services are chosen at the time of the funeral. Our Funeral Plan Administration Team will be happy to answer questions.

Missing payments could mean that we cancel your Funeral Plan. If one payment is missed the plan will fall into arrears. We’ll contact you and ask that you bring the payments back up to date.

If two or more consecutive instalments are missed, we ask you to settle the missed payments within 10 business days of us sending you a statement of the missed payments.

If we don’t cancel your funeral plan after two consecutive missed payments, we’ll continue to provide you with a statement detailing the amount of the payment shortfall, and consequences of missing further payments, after each further consecutive missed payment.

If your circumstances change or you’re worried about your funeral plan payments, please talk to our team and we’ll look at ways to support you.

If you are paying for your plan in up to 12 instalments and you die before it’s fully paid, we can redeem the plan as normal if the outstanding balance is paid before the funeral.  Or we can cancel the plan and refund the amount due.

If death occurs within 12 months of the start date of the plan as the result of accidental death, no further payment will need to be made.

If you are paying over 24 monthly instalments and death occurs after 12 months and your monthly instalments are up to date, no further payment will need to be made.

After you’ve completed your application, you’ll be provided with a welcome pack which includes all the information on your chosen plan. You can also appoint and notify a nominated representative who can receive information on the funeral plan you’ve taken out and any updates that are made during the lifetime of the plan. The paperwork they receive will detail funeral plan contract information, the features of the plan and what they should do when the Covered Individual dies. It’s important they read and understand the documents and keep the information safe.

Once your funeral has taken place your ashes will be returned to the nominated Funeral Director for the person arranging the funeral to collect. Depending on the plan you’ve chosen to take out, we can store the ashes for up to 3 months. Loved ones can then decide in their own time what to do with the ashes.

You’re entitled to membership points on the purchase of a funeral plan, if a valid Central Co-op membership number is recorded on the application form at the time of taking out the plan.

You’ll also receive great offers relating to Central Co-op food, funeral, and other services. If you swipe your member card every time you’re at the till, you’ll earn points for your shopping - the more points you earn, the more benefits you’ll get! And, once you’re a full member*, Central Co-op will convert your points into ££’s to spend in Central Co-op stores, as part of our share of the profits.

*Full membership will begin once you’ve earned £1 in points and remained a member for 6 months thereafter.

In the unlikely event that we were to go out of business it may mean that we’d be unable to provide the funeral we’ve promised to provide. If this were to happen, we’re required to work closely with the Financial Conduct Authority and Financial Services Compensation Scheme to transfer your funeral plan to another regulated funeral plan provider who can carry out the funeral plan in the same way that we would. You can find more information on the FSCS website

If you’re experiencing any unexpected challenges or you’re worried about your funeral plan payments, please talk to our team and we’ll look at ways to support you.

We have flexible payment options, so you can pay in a way that works for you. One single payment via bank transfer, debit card, Visa or Mastercard or cheque. If you book an appointment, we can also accept cash in one of our Central Co-op funeral homes. Or, spread the cost over 12 or 24 months with Direct Debit. Instalment charges of 2.8% will be added to the cost if you’ve chosen to pay over more than 12 months. Once the plan has been paid for in full, there’ll be nothing more to pay by the customer or covered individual’s estate at the time of the funeral, unless additional features and services are requested, in which case the Funeral Plan Arranger can help, and payment can be taken at the time.

Yes, you can. If you choose to pay by Direct Debit and spread the cost over 12 or 24 monthly payments, you can also choose to pay an additional voluntary deposit on top the £250 administration fee, which is taken off the remaining balance to be paid and will reduce your monthly payments. The higher the deposit amount you pay, the smaller the monthly payments over your chosen payment term will be.

A funeral plan is a promise to deliver a funeral in the future. It guarantees to cover the services detailed in the plan when it was taken out. Once paid, there’s nothing more to pay for the services in the plan, no matter how much prices for a funeral service may rise in the future. Life insurance is a type of cover that you pay into monthly and will pay out an agreed cash sum if the policyholder, dies during the policy term. The lump sum could be used to help pay for a funeral but doesn’t guarantee to cover specific costs, and if cancelled, you may not get anything back.

Of course you can, you’ll just need to get in touch with our funeral plan admin team who’ll be able to help you. You can email support@funeralplanning.coop

Our funeral plans don’t cover repatriation (the returning of a person to their own country). If you’re going abroad on holiday, or for a period of time, it’s always worth checking that your travel insurance includes cover for repatriation back to Mainland UK. Once back in the UK, your funeral plan will cover the cost of transportation, up to 50 miles, of the person who’s died to the funeral directors. If the distance is further than 50 miles, we’d ask the family to cover the additional mileage.

Our funeral plans are fully guaranteed meaning we don’t just include an allowance towards disbursement contributions (third-party charges), we guarantee that all defined third-party charges are included in the plan you choose, as well as the Funeral Director fees for either a cremation or burial service. This means that once paid, there’ll be no more to pay for the services in the plan, no matter how much prices may rise. 

Our funeral plans aren’t set in stone, so if yours no longer meets your needs, you can speak to one of our Funeral Plan Arrangers who’ll be happy to discuss what other options are available and we can update it without a fee. 
We can’t make amendments to our set plans, but you can change from one plan to another. You’ll just need to pay the difference in the plan prices that apply on the date of your upgrade. If you move to a plan that’s cheaper, we’ll refund the difference. 
We can also help add new features to a tailor-made plan or remove things you no longer want. Any changes to the products and services in your funeral plan will need to be paid for at the time of the change or a refund will be made if something is no longer required.