Liability of deceased’s estate for funeral expense assistance
104.Funeral expense assistance is assistance to help someone pay for the costs of another’s funeral (see section 34). The assistance is given on the basis that the individual meeting the funeral costs would struggle to meet them. It may be, however, that the deceased’s estate is large enough to meet some or all of the costs, but that money is not in the hands of the person paying the costs when they fall due (and indeed may never be in that person’s hands if the person has no claim on any part of the deceased’s estate). Section 70 allows the Scottish Ministers to recover some or all of the value of the assistance given from the deceased’s estate once it has been in-gathered.