Kirklees Council’s plan to scrap charges for funerals and burials for children is to become national policy.
The council revealed last September it was set to join the growing movement to waive the bereavement fees for people under the age of 18.
Prior to the change it cost £245 to bury a child and £81 for a baby.
Councillors said they felt it was not helpful to burden grieving parents with the cost at such a traumatic time and after a delay amid controversy over some of the new burial charges, the policy was finally agreed last month.
Now, the government has revealed it is following Kirklees’ lead.
The Prime Minister has announced the establishment of a Children’s Funeral Fund which will pay for the costs of the burials and bring England in line with Wales.
Her decision came after a campaign led by MP Carolyn Harris, who lost her son Martin in 1989, when he was just eight years old.
She had called on the government to cover the costs of burials and cremations to help parents struggling to pay for their child’s funeral.
Theresa May hailed the “dignity and strength” of Ms Harris, adding: “No parent should ever have to endure the unbearable loss of a child – a loss that no amount of time will ever truly heal.
She continued: “In the raw pain of immediate loss, it cannot be right that grieving parents should have to worry about how to meet the funeral costs for a child they hoped to see grow into adulthood.
“In the darkest moment of any parent’s life there is little light – but there can be support.
“That is why I have asked for the Children’s Funeral Fund to be set up in England for Carolyn, in memory of her son Martin, and in support of all those parents overwhelmed by such harrowing loss.”
Ms Harris said: “I celebrated last year when the Welsh Government gave me the Children’s Funeral Fund, I’ve celebrated when every local authority right across this country has done this.
“But at last after so much pressure and so much time, families right across the United Kingdom can know that if they’re ever in that terrible, terrible position when they lose a child, that there will now be a pot of money available to make sure that child has a dignified and respectful funeral.”
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the establishment of a fund was “very welcome and wonderful news.”
He said: “This is a simple piece of dignity for bereaved families across the country, secured through tenacious campaigning by Labour’s Carolyn Harris who tirelessly kept up the pressure when the Government was dragging its feet.
“No parent who has gone through the heart-breaking experience of losing a child should be left struggling to cover the cost of a funeral.”
