A Swansea MP will press the government to fund a scheme to scrap children’s burial fees.
Carolyn Harris who represents Swansea East will speak at adjournment debate tonight [Monday] urging ministers to put money into a proposed central fund.
Mrs Harris lost her son Martin in a car accident in 1989. She was forced to take out a loan to bury the eight-year-old.
Speaker John Bercow has agreed for the matter to be debated in the House of Commons.
She stated: “This is something that’s been on my mind for years”.
“Losing a child is an experience that changes your world. Simple daily chores become impossible. When the undertaker was explaining funeral costs, my only thoughts were that I wanted to hold my little boy again, not bury him.”
She is arguing that bereaved parents should be spared similar trauma.
Thousands of people have signed an online petition to scrap the unfair charges that see some local authorities charging heartbroken families while others waive their fees.
Prices for graves can range from £125 to £4,000 within a few miles, but the average cost to councils to end fees would be £22,000 each. The cost to the government would be around £10m a year.
Mrs Harris said she was hopeful that the debate would encourage the government to listen and would be well-attended.
Her call is expected to attract support from across the House after many MPs privately expressed their support for the campaign.
Mrs Harris said she was disappointed by an earlier response from Prime Minister Theresa May during a recent question time who had suggested that the Social Fund would be more appropriate.
“How does a parent in the darkest moment of their life, and is so devastated that can’t even fill a kettle somehow manage to fill in a 35 page application?”, she responded.
