When mourning the loss of a loved one, the last thing many of us want to do is sift through paperwork and make calls to different organisations that have to be informed of the death.
However, the Tell Us Once service from the government has been designed to save families from the pressures of notifying every organisation during an already difficult time.
After the loss of a loved one it might seem like a daunting task to contact all the various organisations that need to be informed of the death. However, the government's Tell Us Once service has been set up to ease some of the stress involved in notifying government departments of a bereavement.
Introduced in 2011, the Tell Us Once service allows people to report the death of a loved one to multiple government departments at once, avoiding the need to contact each one individually. The service saves time, but it also protects families from the upset of having to make multiple calls about the death.
The free Tell Us Once service is provided by most local authorities on behalf of the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP). It covers a number of government departments including HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), public sector / armed forces pensions, Passport Office, and the Driving and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA).
It also covers your local council to cancel housing benefit, council tax reduction, blue badges, various council services and removes the deceased from the electoral register. Tell Us Once will also contact some public sector pension schemes so that they cancel future pension payments.
Before using the Tell Us Once service, you'll need to gather some personal information about the deceased. This may include:
Date of birth
National insurance number
Name and address of their next of kin
Name and address of any surviving spouse
Details of any benefits they were receiving i.e. state pensions
Details of any council services they were receiving i.e. disabled badge
Driving license number (if applicable)
Vehicle registration number (if applicable)
Passport number (if applicable).
Every death in the UK must be registered. Once you've registered the death at your local registry office in England and Wales or at the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages in Scotland, the registrar will let you know if the Tell Us Once service is available in your local area. They will provide you with a reference number to be used either online or over the phone, meaning you won't have to send a copy of the death certificate in the post.
Depending on your local area, the registrar may check with you immediately following registration of the death which central and government services need to be notified. In this case, the notification is sent through immediately.
If it's too much to complete the Tell Us Once process at the time of registering the death, the registrar will offer a telephone or online Tell Us Once service or a separate appointment at a later date if you still want to complete the process in a face-to-face interview.
To use the Tell Us Once service, the deceased person must have lived in England, Wales or Scotland. However, the service is not available in Northern Ireland.
If the Tell Us Once service is not available in your area or if you'd prefer not to use it, then unfortunately you'll have to contact all of the government departments separately. The Government website has a list of contacts for organisations you'll need to contact. The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Council also provides a useful bereavement checklist (PDF), outlining who to contact and when.
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