It can be difficult to sort out practical matters while you are coping with losing someone suddenly.
This section covers some of those practical matters and agencies that you are likely to need to contact.
Who to tell about the death
It can be difficult to sort out practical matters while you are coping with losing someone suddenly. This section covers some of those practical matters and agencies that you are likely to need to contact. If the person who died was receiving any welfare benefits, such as a State Retirement Pension, or if you were receiving welfare benefits, such as Child Benefit for a child who has died, you should inform the Department for Work and Pensions of their death and return any order books. The Registrar will give you a certificate to fill in and return with the books. Keep a note of any reference numbers, as you may need them later on.
If the person who died had a driver’s licence, it will need to be returned to the DVLA. You will also need to let the Tax Office know about your change in circumstances.
Depending on the circumstances, you may also need to contact some other organisations and people.
These may possibly include:
> personal or occupational pension schemes
> insurance company
> bank and/or building society
> mortgage provider, housing association or council housing office
> any hospital the person was attending
> a child or young person’s teacher, employer or college if a parent, brother, sister, grandparent or close friend has died
> a car insurance company ( if you are insured to drive the car under the person’s name, you will cease to be legally insured )
> the local council housing department, if the person who has died was living in a council house
> the local council Housing Benefit/Council Tax Benefit section, if the person who has died was receiving Housing benefit and/or Council Tax Benefit
> the Post Office so that they can redirect the deceased’s mail.
> The Deceased General Practitioner, ( Family Doctor / Surgery ) to stop any regular appointments being sent out and causing the bereaved undue upset.
Further, more detailed, information about such matters is also available from other government sources. You may find the leaflet ‘What to do after death’, available from your local Department for Work and Pensions office, useful. A Scottish version is also available, ‘What to Do After Death in Scotland, which can be accessed at:
www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/ Doc/47133/0025575.pdf
Also, the leaflet IR45, ‘What to do about tax when someone dies’ is available from any Tax Office. You may also wish to subscribe to the ‘Deceased Register’ This is a free service, run in collaboration with local Registrars, which can help you to avoid the anxiety of receiving unwelcome post and telephone calls. If you do this, the name and address of the person who has died will be added to a Register that will be used to remove their details from databases and mailing lists across the UK. However, the ‘Deceased Register’ will not stop you from receiving official communications, such as tax returns, bank statements etc. and you will still need to contact these organisations yourself, as outlined above.
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