Burial Clubs- The Much, Much Bereaved

Despite the many respectable benevolent organizations serving honest and hard-working clients, monetary gains inevitability invite fraud. While unable to afford insurance policies with massive payouts, many in England’s working class saved out a few pence for a subscription to a burial club of a friendly society. For some, the potential payout of £5 or £10 was enough to risk a prison sentence for committing fraud.

The General Register Office for England and Wales was founded in 1836. Country-wide record keeping replaced the old system of “Births, Baptisms, and Burials” kept by the local church. While this system was more accurate, easily referenced, and thorough, it opened up new cracks for crime. Friendly societies (at least those following the law) required both a death certificate issued by a civil registrar and a medical certificate (a form signed by a licensed physician verifying the cause of death) before making a payment. To collect from a burial society, a subscriber’s family only needed the death certificate as proof of the passing.

Fraudsters came to the registration office, falsely claimed the death of a loved one conveniently enrolled in a burial club, received their death certificate, showed the certificate to the representative of their burial club, and pocketed their payment. Often their “dearly departed” had wisely subscribed to several burial clubs, thus greatly increasing the rewards. Civil records show the same person dying multiple times on multiple dates, with multiple causes, with the same beneficiary profiting each time. 

In busy industrial metropolises, the clerk issuing death certificates rarely knew the deceased or the bereaved. He required only their say so that a death had occurred and had no power to investigate their claims. He could only report his suspicions and find enough evidence of wrong-doing to deny their certificates the next time.  It wasn’t until the 1870s, the law tightened up requiring all deaths to have a medical certificate before they could be issued a death certificate.

The lack of government oversight into their processes and practices allowed some organizations to operate as crookedly as their fraudulent clients. Investments of a Friendly Society registered with the British government were not subject to income or property taxes, making it a perfect place to launder ill-gotten gains. Inflated “running costs” and “hospitality budgets” hid embezzling and financial juggling. Adding to this mess is the fact that under British Law, an insurance company, a friendly society, and a burial club were all different legal entities subject to different laws and restrictions, and even then, not all were even registered with the government. If they didn’t bother even existing legally, why would they follow any other rules?

Unscrupulous representatives even pocketed their subscriber’s weekly payment and marked the policy unpaid. Stingy burial clubs used fine print to legally fight honest claims. Some barred subscribers from making any claims until two years after they joined!

Even when the society or club was striving to serve their clientele, honesty does not ensure solvency. Friendly societies and burial clubs dissolved every day to mismanaged funds, and well-intentioned but ill-advised investments. Even perfectly sound organizations foundered if too many elderly clients collected on claims, and not enough young healthy clients subscribed.

Adventure Ideas
One physician that confirms deaths for a friendly society, suspects he saw the same body 3 times over a period of six months and it hasn’t decayed.

A burial club’s founder invested some of the organization's money in a risky venture. It paid out spectacularly, but he’d rather not put all that money back into the club. To cover the surplus, he needs to invent a failure so he can claim to have lost it all.