National Grief Awareness Week 2025
Grief doesn't follow a straight line. There's no schedule, no right way to feel, and no moment when everything suddenly makes sense again. This year's National Grief Awareness Week theme is "Growing with Grief" and we think that phrase captures something important. Growth doesn't mean moving on or leaving your loved one behind. It means learning, slowly and gently, to carry your loss alongside your life. Some days that feels impossible. Other days, you surprise yourself. At Funeral Experts, we've walked alongside hundreds of families through some of their hardest days. We know that grief affects everything: your emotions, your finances, your energy for even the smallest tasks. We're here to help carry some of that weight.
What We've Learned This Year
Since launching in partnership with Liverpool City Council and Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in May 2024, we’ve supported hundreds of families across Liverpool. An independent evaluation by Anglia Ruskin University found that families we supported saved an average of £900 on funeral costs, money that made a real difference during an already difficult time.
But the numbers only tell part of the story. Behind each one is a person trying to navigate impossible days while managing paperwork, phone calls, and decisions they never expected to make.
That’s where we come in.
How We Can Help
Funeral advice: Helping families find the right funeral director and navigate their options in a way that feels right for them.
Welfare benefits advice: Including help with notifying the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), conducting benefit calculations, and supporting applications to ensure you receive the help available to you.
Council tax advice: Assisting with changes in liability, single-person discounts, and exemptions following a bereavement.
Housing support: Guidance on tenancy changes, succession rights, housing benefit adjustments, and liaising with landlords or housing associations during a difficult time.
Employment support: Helping you understand your rights around bereavement leave, supporting conversations with employers, and signposting to employment services if your circumstances have changed.
Notification of a death: Simplifying the process through tools such as Tell Us Once and liaising with relevant agencies on your behalf.
Probate and estate management: Working with our partners to provide advice and support on managing a loved one’s affairs.
Grants searches and applications: Identifying sources of financial help to support with funeral costs and other immediate needs.
Emotional support: Offering a listening ear, a safe space to talk, and signposting to further resources and services when needed.
Bereavement administration: Helping with practical tasks and paperwork to reduce stress when everything feels overwhelming.
Signposting: Connecting you with local and national services for additional support, whether that’s counselling, legal advice, debt guidance, or community groups.
Training for professionals: Supporting organisations and frontline staff to better understand bereavement, respond compassionately, and signpost effectively to specialist services.
Growing with Grief
Sometimes grief takes people to the darkest of places.
Earlier this year, we supported someone who had lost their partner and felt completely alone. The silence in the house was unbearable. The practical tasks felt impossible. They told us they couldn’t see a way forward.
We were there. We listened without judgement. We helped with the paperwork and phone calls they couldn’t face. And we connected them with a charity that supports people experiencing loneliness, so they had someone to talk to beyond our service.
Months later, they’re still taking it day by day, but they’re here. They’re finding moments of connection again. They’re growing around their grief, not alone anymore.
That’s why we do this work.
Let’s Support Each Other
As part of National Grief Awareness Week, we encourage everyone to reach out to someone who might be grieving. You don’t need the perfect words. Sometimes a message, a cup of tea, or simply saying their loved one’s name is enough.
And if you’re the one who’s struggling, please know you don’t have to do this alone.
Contact Funeral Experts
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- Support Helpline: 0800 086 8887
- Email: info@funeralexperts.com
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