Who pays for a repatriation, and how to keep the cost down

The question every family asks first is whether someone else has to pay. Usually not. The British government does not pay to bring a citizen home or to send anyone abroad, and the government of the destination country almost never does either. What can step in is a policy, an employer or the estate, and the order you check them in matters, because the biggest one has a deadline.

Who can pay, in the order to check

1. A travel insurance policy

If your loved one died abroad while travelling, and had a travel policy, that policy almost certainly includes repatriation cover as part of its medical section. It is the single biggest source of money for a repatriation to the UK, and it is time-critical: the insurer’s assistance line has to be told, and it will usually arrange the repatriation itself through its own contractor. Ring it before anything is signed. Does travel insurance cover repatriation goes through what is covered, what is not, and what happens if you would rather use a company of your own.

2. An employer’s policy

If your loved one died while working abroad, or was a foreign national working in the UK, their employer may hold a group policy that covers repatriation, and some employment contracts for posted workers include it in terms. Ask the employer’s HR department directly and ask to see the policy wording.

3. A home country’s consulate

A few countries help their own nationals’ families with a repatriation from the UK, usually with documents and advice rather than money, and religious and community organisations in the UK sometimes raise funds for a member’s family. Ask the consulate in London what it can do; the answer varies, and only the consulate can tell you.

4. The estate

If your loved one left money, the cost of the funeral, and repatriation is part of it, is a legitimate first charge on the estate and is paid before anything is distributed. A bank may agree to release money from a frozen account to pay a funeral director on sight of the invoice, but it is not obliged to before probate, and some refuse. This does not help a family that needs to pay now and has no access to the account, which is why it is fourth.

What does not pay

The Funeral Expenses Payment can help with a funeral in the UK or, for some claimants, in the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland, and it does not cover a repatriation. Three charities the Foreign Office lists can help some families: the JackTheLad Foundation for a person aged 16 to 30 who died in an accident overseas, the Kevin Bell Repatriation Trust for Northern Ireland and Ireland, and the Repatriation Services Trust for Wales. A life insurance policy pays a lump sum to the beneficiary and can be used for anything, but it takes weeks to pay out and the repatriation cannot wait for it. Crowdfunding works for some families and is nobody’s plan.

Four things that genuinely lower the cost

Road instead of air, where the route allows. For most of Europe, road transport is cheaper, has fewer handovers and no airline schedule, and it is what we do by default. By road or by air sets out where each applies.

A standard repatriation coffin. The coffin a border requires is a sealed one, and a standard model is included in our estimate. An upgraded coffin for the funeral at home is the single line that adds most to a quote, and a family can often buy the coffin they want at the destination for less.

Cremation before travel, where the family and their faith allow it. Ashes travel as hand luggage or by courier, need a fraction of the documents and cost a fraction of a coffin’s transport. It is not the right choice for every family or every faith, and it is a real one; repatriation, local burial or cremation abroad sets the options beside each other.

Doing the documents once, in the right order. A death certificate translated before it is legalised has to be translated again. A coroner’s notice sent on day four instead of day one costs four days of chapel of rest fees somewhere. The cheapest repatriation is the one with no repeats, and that is what you are paying a specialist for.

What is not a saving

A quote that is cheap because it leaves out the receiving funeral director at the destination, or the embalming, or the consular fee, is not cheap; it is incomplete, and the missing lines arrive later as a second invoice. How much does repatriation cost from the UK sets out what a complete quote contains, and what a body repatriation costs gives our estimate for every country. Compare two complete quotes and you will usually find the difference is a few hundred pounds. Compare a complete one with an incomplete one and the difference is whatever the second invoice turns out to be.

For where the money goes, step by step, repatriation, step by step follows the whole process from the first call.