Public Assistance Act, 1939

Burial of deceased persons.

24.—(1) A public assistance authority or, in case of urgency, an officer of a public assistance authority administering home assistance may provide for the burial of any of the following persons at any place within the public assistance district of such authority which appears to such authority or officer (as the case may be) to be proper, that is to say:—

(a) a deceased person who died whilst in receipt of general assistance from such public assistance authority;

(b) a deceased person who died within the public assistance district of such public assistance authority and whose relatives either are not known or are, owing to absence or poverty or for some other good and sufficient reason, unable to provide for his burial;

(c) a deceased person who has been drowned and cast ashore within such public assistance district or who has otherwise perished and been found dead within the said district and (in either case) whose body has not been claimed for burial.

(2) The public assistance authority of a public assistance district may, in any case in which they think proper, bring into and bury in such district the body of a person eligible for general assistance who has died outside such district.

(3) Where a person eligible for general assistance dies while in receipt of public assistance from a public assistance authority in an institution outside the public assistance district of such public assistance authority, such authority may bury the body of such person in any burial ground at a convenient distance from such institution.

(4) A public assistance authority may defray all expenses necessarily incurred in the burial under this section of a deceased person or in the bringing of the body of a deceased person into their public assistance district for burial.

(5) Where a public assistance authority incurs under this section expenses in relation to the body of a deceased person, such public assistance authority may obtain repayment of such expenses from the property of such deceased person or from any person who was liable to maintain such person immediately before his death as if such expenses were the cost of public assistance given to such person before his death.