Funeral services in Northern Ireland could be disrupted in the face of mounting credit crunch debts, it was warned yesterday.

The National Association of Funeral Directors is holding a meeting in Antrim next Wednesday to discuss the spiralling number of cases in the province where people are unable to pay funeral bills.

Some Ulster funeral directors may resort to withholding their services unless they receive payment in advance, the association said.

This side-effect of the credit crunch, the increase in non-payment for funerals, has left some funeral directors with a cash-flow problem and unable to meet their overheads.

Spokesman and Glasgow-based funeral director Dominic Maguire, said: “Local funeral directors in Northern Ireland signalled this increasing problem to us but haven’t had an appropriate remedy.

“The purpose of the meeting is to identify areas of the funeral service industry in the UK which can be adopted by funeral directors in Northern Ireland to help mitigate exposure to this type of debt.”

Mr Maguire said there had been instances in England where a family had returned to use the services of a funeral director having not paid for previous expenses.

In these cases some funeral directors had refused to bury their deceased until the bill was paid.

Funeral expenses are divided into two categories. The first being the work of the funeral directors themselves and the second being payments to a third-party, such as florists.

In the case of non-payment by the family, it is left to the funeral director to pay these third-party expenses.

It will be a big change but it has been successful|in the UK

The meeting will be addressed by the President and Chief Executive of the National Association of Funeral Directors as well as funeral directors from the UK who have experience of the problem.

It is understood a possible solution will be the introduction of advanced payment for third-party expenses.

Mr Maguire said: “It will be a big change in policy but it has been rolled out successfully in the UK and has reduced funeral director debt in the UK considerably.”

Stephen Love of Willowfield Funeral Services in Belfast said he was sceptical about the new proposed measures.

“Advance payments may work for big firms but not small firms. If people are really stuck we set up a standing order to help them meet payments.”

The work funeral directors carry out themselves may still be done on the “basis of trust,” according to Mr Maguire.

The proposals are only guidelines and each funeral director in Northern Ireland will remain autonomous.