Yes — there is help with a child's burial or cremation fees in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, but it does not come as a single Children's Funeral Fund the way it does in England. England set up one named national fund. The other three nations reached broadly the same place by different routes: Wales and Scotland told their councils not to charge the fees at all, and Northern Ireland's position is more of a patchwork, decided council by council and topped up by a separate benefit. So the honest answer to whether there is a children's funeral fund in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland is that the money is there, but the machinery is different in each nation, and each one leaves a different set of costs for the family to meet.
That difference matters, because a bereaved parent who reads about "the Children's Funeral Fund" and assumes it applies everywhere can be caught out. The fund by that name is an England scheme. What replaces it elsewhere covers similar ground but is claimed differently, and none of the four arrangements covers a whole funeral — every one of them stops at the burial or cremation fees and leaves the funeral director's own charges outside.
This page sets the four nations side by side: what each covers, how you actually access it, and, most importantly, what each one leaves you to pay. It is written for the worst week a parent can have, so it is specific rather than reassuring.
At a glance
- England has a named Children's Funeral Fund. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland reach a similar point through council fee waivers and their own schemes, not through one shared fund.
- In Wales and Scotland, councils do not charge burial or cremation fees for a child, so there is nothing for the parent to reclaim.
- In Northern Ireland the position is less uniform, varying by council and topped up by the Department for Communities scheme.
- None of the four covers the funeral director's own fees, cars, flowers, a memorial or a wake. That is the part families still pay everywhere.
- All the schemes apply to children under 18, and to stillbirths from the 24th week of pregnancy.
The short answer: the same aim, four different mechanisms
Every UK nation has decided that a family should not be charged the local-authority burial or cremation fee when a child dies. They just built it differently. England created the Children's Funeral Fund for England, a central fund that pays those fees and a contribution towards a coffin, claimed on the family's behalf. Wales and Scotland instead removed the charge at source: their councils simply do not levy burial or cremation fees for a child, funded by their devolved governments. Northern Ireland has no single equivalent fund, so cover there depends on the individual council's policy alongside a benefit administered by the Department for Communities.
The practical upshot is that in Wales and Scotland there is usually nothing to claim, because the fee never appears, whereas in England the fee is covered by a fund and in Northern Ireland you may need to check what your specific council does. In all four, the age rule is the same: it applies to children under 18, and to a baby stillborn from the 24th week of pregnancy, which is the point at which a stillbirth is legally registered across the UK.
England: the Children's Funeral Fund as the baseline
Because England's scheme is the one people have heard of, it is the natural baseline for comparison. The Children's Funeral Fund for England meets the necessary burial or cremation fees in full for a child under 18 and for an eligible stillbirth, and it contributes a set amount towards a coffin, shroud or casket. It is not means-tested — it does not matter what the family earns or whether anyone is on benefits — and it is normally claimed by the funeral director or the burial or cremation authority rather than by the parents directly, so the family should not have to pay those fees and wait for a refund.
What it does not do is cover the rest of a funeral. The funeral director's professional charges, transport, flowers, a service, a memorial and a wake all sit outside it. That boundary — fees covered, everything else not — is the same in all four nations, and it is the single most important thing for a grieving family to understand before they arrange anything.
Wales: fee waivers through the councils
Wales does not run a fund with a name. Instead, Welsh local authorities have not charged burial or cremation fees for children since 2017, with the Welsh Government meeting the cost. From a parent's point of view this is arguably simpler than England's model: there is no fund to apply to and no claim to make, because the council does not raise the charge in the first place.
The limits are the same in substance, though. The waiver covers the council's burial or cremation fees for a child under 18. It does not extend to the funeral director's own charges, which are a separate commercial arrangement between the family and the director. So a Welsh family faces no local-authority fee, but still meets the director's costs, the memorial and anything else they choose to include. If the plan is a churchyard burial rather than a council cemetery, be aware that parish burial carries its own separate fees and many churchyards are closed to new graves, a point we cover under why a churchyard burial is neither free nor always available.
Scotland: no council charge, plus a possible payment
Scotland works much like Wales at the council level: local authorities do not charge burial or cremation fees for a child under 18, so those fees do not fall on the family. On top of that, Scotland has its own Funeral Support Payment, administered by Social Security Scotland, which can help with other funeral costs for families on a qualifying benefit — a broader payment that is not limited to children but can apply here.
So a Scottish family can, in the right circumstances, have the council fees waived and also receive a contribution towards the wider funeral through Funeral Support Payment, provided they meet the benefit conditions for the latter. The two are separate: the fee waiver is automatic and universal for children, while the payment is means-tested and must be claimed. Scots law diverges from the rest of the UK in a number of ways that catch families out around a death — for example, that in Scotland a child can inherit at 16 rather than 18 — so it is worth checking the Scottish position rather than assuming England-and-Wales rules apply.
Source: National Records of Scotland, Vital Events Reference Tables (Deaths, Chapter 5; Stillbirths and Infant Deaths, Chapter 6), the official record of child deaths and stillbirths registered in Scotland. Published under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Northern Ireland: council by council, plus the DfC scheme
Northern Ireland is the least uniform of the four, which is exactly why a family there cannot rely on a single national answer. There is no Children's Funeral Fund equivalent covering the whole of Northern Ireland in one scheme. Instead, whether a child's burial or cremation fee is waived depends on the policy of the district council responsible for the cemetery or crematorium, and those policies are not identical across councils.
Alongside that, the Department for Communities runs a Funeral Expenses Payment for families on a qualifying benefit, which can help with funeral costs more generally but is means-tested and subject to the same eligibility tests that catch out claimants elsewhere. Because the picture varies locally, the practical step in Northern Ireland is to ask the specific council directly what it charges for a child's burial or cremation, and to check separately whether a Department for Communities payment applies. When you are notifying the various bodies after a death in Northern Ireland, this is one more thing to confirm rather than assume, and our guide to notifying everyone after a death in Northern Ireland and the separate Northern Ireland bereavement payment set out how the province runs its own systems.
The four nations side by side
Setting the arrangements out together shows how similar the outcome is and how different the route.
| Nation | Child burial or cremation fees | How it is delivered | Other funeral costs |
|---|---|---|---|
| England | Covered, plus a coffin contribution | Children's Funeral Fund, claimed by the funeral director | Not covered |
| Wales | Not charged | Council fee waiver, funded by Welsh Government since 2017 | Not covered |
| Scotland | Not charged | Council fee waiver, plus Funeral Support Payment for eligible families | Partly, via Funeral Support Payment if eligible |
| Northern Ireland | Depends on the council | Council policy, plus a Department for Communities payment if eligible | Partly, via the DfC payment if eligible |
Read across and the shared boundary is obvious: every nation deals with the local-authority fees for a child, and every nation leaves the rest of the funeral to the family. The differences are in whether you claim, whether it is means-tested, and how much you need to check locally.
What every nation leaves uncovered
This is the part that determines what a child's funeral actually costs a family, because the fees the schemes cover are often the smaller share of the total. Uncovered, everywhere, are the funeral director's professional fees, the coffin beyond any contribution, transport and limousines, embalming, flowers, an order of service, a memorial or headstone, and the wake. These can add up to well more than the waived fees, and they land on parents who are in no state to negotiate.
Where a family cannot meet those costs, the routes are the same as for any funeral: asking the bank to release funds against the invoice, a state payment where a qualifying benefit is in payment — subject to the eligibility trap set out under the closer relative rule that defeats many funeral grant claims — help from relatives, and, where a gap remains, a community appeal. Online appeals for a child's funeral often raise more than for an adult's, but they still lose a slice to platform fees and rarely hit the target, as we explain under what a funeral appeal really raises. Keeping the funeral itself simple is not a failure of love; it is often the only realistic response to costs that no scheme touches.
Planning around a risk no one wants to think about
The reason this subject is so painful is that the death of a child is rare and unthinkable, so almost no family plans for it — and the schemes above exist precisely because, when it does happen, money should be the last thing a parent has to fight. The fee waivers do real good. But they were designed to remove the local-authority charge, not to fund a whole funeral, and they do nothing about the wider financial hit a family takes when a parent's own income or savings are stretched by a bereavement.
For most families the more likely exposure is the loss of a parent rather than a child, which is what life cover is generally arranged to protect against — replacing income or clearing a mortgage so the surviving parent is not forced to make decisions under financial pressure. You can see how the whole subject fits together in our guide to funeral costs and who pays, and if you want to make sure your own family would not be left exposed, you can get life insurance quotes and have an FCA-authorised broker price cover against your circumstances.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a Children's Funeral Fund outside England?
Not by that name. England has the Children's Funeral Fund for England, which meets burial or cremation fees and contributes towards a coffin for under-18s and for stillbirths from the 24th week of pregnancy. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland reached a similar position differently — Wales and Scotland through council fee waivers, and Northern Ireland through a mix of council policy and a Department for Communities payment — rather than through one shared national fund.
How does Wales handle child funeral costs?
Welsh local authorities have waived burial and cremation fees for children since 2017, funded by the Welsh Government, so parents are not charged those fees and there is nothing to reclaim. The funeral director's own charges — the coffin, transport, a service, flowers and a memorial — are separate, are not covered by the waiver, and still have to be met by the family, which is where most of a child's funeral cost actually falls.
What help is there in Scotland and Northern Ireland?
In Scotland, local authorities do not charge burial or cremation fees for children, and Funeral Support Payment may help with other costs for families on qualifying benefits. In Northern Ireland, whether the fees are waived depends on the district council, and a Department for Communities Funeral Expenses Payment may help those on a qualifying benefit. In both, the funeral director's charges remain the family's responsibility.