Who Do You Need to Notify When Someone Dies in the UK?

Detailed Explanation

This is the UK version of the notification checklist. The general groups of people and organisations to tell are covered in who do you need to notify when someone dies. What's different in the UK is Tell Us Once: a government service that deals with most of the official notifications in one step, once the death is registered. The rest of the list, meaning banks, pensions, utilities and the employer, still has to be worked through separately.

Registering the death comes first

Tell Us Once is offered when the death is registered, so registration is the starting point. GOV.UK says the death should be registered within 5 days (8 days in Scotland) of getting confirmation that it can be. In England and Wales that confirmation now comes from the medical examiner's office after it reviews the cause of death. If a coroner is involved, registration can be delayed, but an interim death certificate from the coroner is enough to use Tell Us Once.

What Tell Us Once covers

Tell Us Once can be used if the person lived in England, Scotland or Wales. The registrar will either complete it with you at the appointment or give you a unique reference number to use online or by phone. The number must be used within 28 days.

According to GOV.UK, Tell Us Once notifies:

• HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC): personal tax, and cancelling benefits and credits such as Child Benefit
• Department for Work and Pensions (DWP): benefits and entitlements such as Universal Credit and State Pension
• HM Passport Office: cancelling a British passport
• DVLA: cancelling a driving licence, removing the person as keeper of up to five vehicles, and ending the vehicle tax
• The local council: Housing Benefit, Council Tax Reduction, Blue Badges, council housing services, and removing the person from the electoral register
• Veterans UK: Armed Forces Compensation Scheme payments
• Social Security Scotland: Scottish benefits such as Scottish Child Payment
• Some public sector pension schemes: including the Armed Forces Pension Scheme, Civil Service Pension Scheme, Local Government Pension Schemes, NHS Pensions (England and Wales), the Pension Protection Fund, and Scottish Public Pensions Agency schemes

It helps to have the person's National Insurance number, passport and driving licence numbers, vehicle registrations, Blue Badge number, and details of the executor and any surviving spouse or civil partner to hand. You need permission from the spouse, next of kin or executor before giving their details.

What Tell Us Once doesn't cover

GOV.UK is clear that families still need to contact organisations such as:

• banks and building societies
• mortgage providers and insurers
• utility companies, landlords or housing associations, and other companies the person had contracts with
• personal and workplace pension schemes, unless they're one of the public sector schemes listed above
• HM Land Registry, if the person owned land or property and the records need updating
• DVLA again, if you sell or keep and tax a vehicle the person owned
• HMRC separately for business taxes such as VAT
• the Student Loans Company, if the person had a student loan
• the person's employer

The Death Notification Service for banks

The Death Notification Service is a free, industry-run service that notifies a number of member organisations of a death at the same time, mainly banks and building societies. Its website lists the current members. If money needs releasing from an account urgently, for example to pay the funeral director, the service suggests speaking to the bank directly first.

Northern Ireland

Tell Us Once doesn't cover people who lived in Northern Ireland. There, the Department for Communities' Bereavement Service records the death, tells each office that paid the person a benefit or State Pension, and checks whether the family can claim a Bereavement Support Payment or a Funeral Expenses Payment. Other bodies are contacted directly. The nidirect checklist includes:

• the relevant tax office, and the National Insurance Contributions Office if the person was self-employed
• the Child Benefit Office
• Land & Property Services, if the person paid rates or received Housing Benefit, rate relief or a rate rebate
• the UK or Irish passport office
• the Driver & Vehicle Agency, for the driving licence, vehicle tax and registration documents
• the Blue Badge Unit, if the person held one, and the dealership if they had a Motability car (which has to be returned within 2 weeks)

How this compares elsewhere

Tell Us Once is one of the broader government one-stop services. Australia's equivalent works differently, and the US has no national service at all. See who to notify when someone dies in Australia and who to notify when someone dies in the US if the person had ties to either country.

Things to Consider

• Get several certified copies of the death certificate at registration. Banks, insurers and pension providers commonly ask for one, and ordering more later takes longer.
• Use Tell Us Once early. It stops State Pension and benefit payments sooner, which reduces the chance of overpayments the estate would have to repay.
• Expect HMRC and DWP to write back. Both contact the family or executor afterwards about the person's tax and any benefits.
• Keep the reference number safe. It's needed to use the service, and it expires after 28 days.
• Where the person lived decides which process applies. Tell Us Once depends on the person having lived in England, Scotland or Wales, so check with the registrar if they lived in Northern Ireland but died elsewhere in the UK.

Common Mistakes

• Assuming Tell Us Once covers the banks and workplace pension. It only reaches government bodies and the listed public sector schemes.
• Letting the 28 days run out. After that, each government department has to be told individually.
• Driving the person's car after the DVLA has been told. Tell Us Once ends the vehicle tax, so a vehicle kept on the road needs taxing in the new keeper's name.
• Forgetting the employer and private pension. Neither is told automatically, and both affect money the family may be owed.