Government under pressure to help Aboriginal families after ‘predatory’ funeral insurer’s collapse

Kuku Yalanji elder Daphne Naden, who signed up to Youpla Group’s fund in the 1990s, is among those who were left out of pocket when the insurer collapsed in March. Photograph: Brian Cassey

More than 120 legal, health and social services organisations have appealed to the federal government to provide urgent assistance to Aboriginal families left with no way to pay for their funerals, after their “predatory” insurer went into liquidation.

“This is one of the worst financial scandals we’ve ever seen,” they say in an open letter to both major political parties, after reports that Aboriginal families have been forced to leave the bodies of their loved ones in the morgue while they raise the money to pay for a funeral.