Lonelier lives lead to rise in pauper funerals

.............Councillor David Rogers, chairman of the LGA's Community Wellbeing Board, said: "These tragic figures speak for themselves. People, mostly elderly, are dying around us with no family or friends nearby to care for them. It is a sad fact that there are thousands of people across the country with no friends to arrange, attend or pay for their funerals. Our ageing population is growing and so is the worrying picture of isolation and loneliness across the country.".............

And we can, each and every one of us, do something about this in our own street by reaching out to people who live close to us who we suspect may be living isolated lives.

(If you will excuse the note of sanctimoniousness).

Read more from The Guardian here.......