No final ceremony for Lancaster County's poor

LINCOLN (AP) — There is no pomp and circumstance at the end of life for the very poor in Lancaster County.

And a pauper’s burial is getting more meager — cremation and a plastic box.

The Lincoln Journal Star reports advocates for the poor and some local funeral homes think the new rules, which eliminate a simple service, have gone too far.

Indigent burials by the county always have been frugal affairs: No flowers, no organ music, no cards, no headstones.

Nine years ago, the county stopped paying for burials, leaving cremation the only option unless the county attorney wanted to preserve a body for legal reasons.

People who don’t believe in cremation for religious reasons can go to their churches and ask for help, according to a county attorney’s opinion at the time.

But until now, the county has allowed a family viewing at a funeral home and a service at a funeral home or graveside.

This year, the Lancaster County Board eliminated service and viewing options, cutting costs back from $1,128 to $800 per indigent burial.

Remains that are not picked up by relatives are put into a mass grave at Wyuka — basically a pipe routed into the ground.

It is about the money. The money saved for each death means a savings of about $24,000 a year.

The changes represent a way to save money on the indigent burials, said County Commissioner Larry Hudkins, who participated in an advisory committee that reviewed assistance guidelines last year.

But a service often is an important part of the mourning process, said Beatty Brasch, who works with low-income people as executive director of the Center for People in Need.

“It helps people understand and accept the death. It brings families together. All cultures have death rituals, and this is an important one in our culture,” she said.

“Why we would say that a low-income person would not have access to some type of service. . It is very unfair.”

Even though the commissioners already have voted to change the rules, Brasch believes they should revisit the issue.

Most people didn’t know about the proposal, didn’t know there was a public hearing and didn’t have time to express their concerns, she said.

Local mortuaries were among those unaware of the hearing and vote.

Several of them said they knew there had been some discussion of the possibility of cutting indigent burial services, but they said they thought there’d be more talks before a decision was made.

Most families do want some kind of a service, said Mike Williams, funeral director for Wyuka Funeral Home.

“Unfortunately, (the county) went with the minimalist view of the indigent population,” he said.

This continues a trend, said Tom Roper with Roper and Sons.

“But it doesn’t surprise me. There has been a downturn. The county has a budget; it has to be mindful of costs,” he said.

“I feel sorry for people who are truly indigent. Everyone deserves some type of a send-off,” he said. “Unfortunately, the individuals who can’t afford services are the ones affected.”

The rules also preclude family or anyone else from paying for any extras. A family cannot accept a county cremation, then pay for a service.

It can, however, have a service elsewhere after ashes have been picked up, said Gary Chalupa, the county’s general assistance director.

The rules cover what is paid for and done by a mortuary, he said. And the county is not going to be checking to make sure there is no service somewhere else, he said.

Under general assistance rules, only the very poor qualify for a county cremation.

That means the spouse of the deceased can earn no more than the federal poverty level, $903 a month for one person. And the deceased, if there is no spouse, can have no more than $800 in his or her estate.

A spouse is legally responsible for burial costs, and parents are responsible for the cost of cremating minor children.

The county also collects from estates any income available to offset the cost of cremation, Chalupa said.

Generally, funeral homes will do the cremation, then worry about getting paid, he said.

Last year, the county spent about $56,000 on indigent cremation and burial out of its $2.7 million general assistance budget, most of which goes to medical services for the living.