A GRIEVING daughter has blasted the price of funerals in Wyre Forest as “making money out of people’s bereavement” after being slapped with a £2,400 funeral bill for her mother.

Teresa Dudley has hit out at the cost after being faced with the bill following the death of her mother, Joan Wallace, who was 76.

Mrs Dudley said she was devastated at having to fork out just under £3,000 for the funeral held last Friday, after flowers, cars and a wake were added to the price.

Crematoria operator Dignity, which manages Wyre Forest Crematorium, explained its cremation fee was just £651, adding the rest of the fees come from the funeral director “for arranging and conducting the funeral, the coffin and third party costs they pay on behalf of the client”.

Mrs Dudley said her mother, who died on July 1, did not have any life insurance, which meant she had to foot the bill without any financial help.

“Forme it’s a total devastation,” she said. “I lost my mother and then I had to find this money. I had no savings and it just kind of hit me. I’ve had to go into debt because I haven’t got that sort of money.

“I was already grieving for the loss of my mother and then I was faced with a £2,400 bill just for the cremation and that was the cheapest that I could get.”

Mrs Dudley was speaking out after a recent survey by the GMB union claimed the cost of burials and cremations in Wyre Forest was one of the lowest in the West Midlands.

She said she wanted to warn people in Wyre Forest of the “high”

funeral costs they could be faced with.

She added: “People need to be aware. If they haven’t got any life insurance then they need to consider it.

“I was very surprised at the cost and I was also very surprised that I wouldn’t get any help to pay for it. It’s making money out of people’s bereavement and I think it’s shocking.

“It makes you think, what would happen if I wasn’t going to pay it?

The cost adds to the stress you are already under.