After a death –

Who to contact & inform

UK organisations to notify after a death with tel numbers and website links for Banks, Utility Companies & the UK government

 

A helping hand with who to contact after a death

Once you have gathered all the information from “1st Steps – Prepring” page then now you are ready for the next stage of notifying the various authorities and companies for the UK death notification process

In the three boxes below for Government Death Notifications, Financial Organisation Death Notifications & Utility & Social Media Death Notifications, we are building an up-to-date database and website links (when available) to provide you a go-to checklist and a guiding hand on where to notify each institution of a bereavement.

The boxes below will provide you details on how to contact the main organisations bereavement teams where we list telephone numbers and website links (as available at 29th July, 2020)

Who to contact after a bereavement

We’ve created lists below, for your convenience, so that you have one place to find organisation website links and telephone numbers(where available) relevant to you –Last updated on 29th June, 2020

 

 

Utility & Social Media Notifications

Updating utility companies is generally easier than the financial institutions process. Once you have located suppliers and the respective account numbers from statements, letters of from direct debits from bank accounts then you can go ahead and notify them of an account holders death. You may be closing an account or transferring it into someone else’s name.

If the bills are paid by Direct Debit (they will send a reason code that normally states that the account holder is deceased) or standing order. The bank will then cancel these as soon as you have been notified them of the death. In this event most of the utility, telephone, mobile and insurance companies will write a letter to the address of the deceased.

Before contacting the gas and electricity companies, you will require up to date meter readings for the property.

UTILITY COMPANIES:

British Gas

Bulb

 EDF Energy

EON

Npower

OVO Energy

Scottish Power

Shell Energy

SSE

Together Energy

TELEPHONE, BROADBAND, MOBILE, SATELLITE & TV COMPANIES:

BT

EE

John Lewis Broadband

Now TV

O2

Plusnet

Post Office Broadband / Telephone

Shell Energy Broadband

Sky

TalkTalk

Tesco Mobile

Virgin Media

Vodafone

EMAIL, ONLINE and SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS:

Google Services  – Gmail, Google Drive, YouTube

Microsoft Services – Hotmail, Outlook, Live, OneDrive

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

LinkedIn

Government Notifications

The government website has created a simplified online notifying service called “Tell-Us-Once”

Please note that this service is not available for Northern Ireland.

The government’s UK Tell Us Once online service will electronically notify the following on your behalf:

  • HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) – to deal with personal tax (you need to contact HMRC separately for business taxes, like VAT)
  • Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) – to cancel benefits and entitlements, for example Universal Credit or State Pension
  • Passport Office – to cancel a British passport
  • Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) – to cancel a licence and remove the person as the keeper of up to 5 vehicles (contact DVLA separately if you keep or sell a vehicle)
  • the local council – to cancel Housing Benefit, Council Tax Reduction (sometimes called Council Tax Support), a Blue Badge, inform council housing services and remove the person from the electoral register
  • Veterans UK – to cancel Armed Forces Compensation Scheme payments

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) will contact you about the tax, benefits and entitlements of the person who died.

Tell Us Once will also contact some public sector pension schemes so that they cancel future pension payments. They’ll notify the following:

  • My Civil Service Pension
  • NHS Pension Scheme
  • Armed Forces Pension Scheme
  • pension schemes for NHS staff, teachers, police and firefighters in Scotland
  • local authority pension schemes that participate in Tell Us Once

If  the UK Gov.uk – Tell Us Once service – is not available

You’ll have to let the relevant organisations know about the death yourself in the following circumstances:

If you prefer not to use the government’s Tell Us Once service or if you are unable because the person died abroad then you’ll need to inform the relevant organisations individually such as:

Other Notifications

There are other useful contacts that are also worth considering:

Royal Mail – Redirection Service

Citizens Advice Bureau

AgeUK

  • Find help via the AgeUK website regarding what to do after a bereavement
  • By telephone Age UK Advice Line on 0800 678 1602. Their lines are open 8am-7pm, 365 days a year
Financial Organisation Notifications

Notifying financial institutions in the UK of a death can be quite a difficult process and at times a long drawn out process. You will likely be required to provide an original or certified copy of the death certificate, original or certified copies of the deceased’s will (if there is one) stating who is the executor or executors of the will.

If there’s a will, it will name one or more people as personal representatives (also known as ‘executors’) who will be responsible for carrying out the deceased’s wishes.

If there isn’t a will, this is known as ‘intestacy’. In this case, the next of kin usually becomes the administrator of the estate (which are possessions, money or property the deceased leaves behind).

The executor(s) will also need to provide copies of their ID. You will be required to either take this into a bank branch or send by post. Each will list their own specific requirements on their website and the majority also have dedicated telephone helpdesks where you can make the initial death notification.

Any joint accounts are usually transferred into the other parties name. Any sole accounts of the deceased are frozen. This then means that no money can be taken out of the accounts.

Most banks will continue to allow credits into the deceased’s accounts. By law any Direct Debits and standing orders will be cancelled by the bank as soon as they are notified of a death. This includes utility bills, mortgage, loan payments and home insurance.

Death Notification Service Online Notification

Firstly, look into using the central Death Notification Service allows you to submit a single online form to notify a number of banks at once.

Currently, the following banks and building societies have signed up to allow death notification via one online portal. These are:

Barclays PLC, including Barclaycard and Barclays

HSBC UK, including First Direct and M&S Bank

RBS group, including NatWest

Santander UK, including Cahoot

Lloyds Banking Group, including Bank of Scotland, Halifax, Lloyds Bank, Scottish Widows and Clerical Medical

Nationwide Building Society, including The Mortgage Works, UCB Home Loans Ltd and The Mutual.

To assist you, following is a list of the latest bank, building societies, financial institutions and share registrar names with links and telephone numbers (where available) so that you can contact them directly to notify them of a death:

Banks & Building Societies:

You can also contact the banks directly as well. Most have dedicated bereavement teams you can contact via telephone or online. Following are contact details and links to the major ones:

Bank of  Scotland

Barclays

Co-operative Bank/Smile

First Direct

Halifax

HSBC

Lloyds Bank

Metro Bank

Nationwide

NATWEST

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS)

Santander

Other Financial Institutions:

AJ Bell – Youinvest

NS&I

Hargreaves Lansdown

Share Registrars:

There are currently three main share registrars in the UK covering paper share certificates. They need to be contacted to be informed if a shareholder is deceased. They all have bereavement teams and guidance on their websites. The three main registrars are:

Computershare

Equiniti – Shareview

Link Asset Services (previously CAPITA share registrars)

Website comments

“An invaluable guide with links that saved me so much time during such a sad time.”

James Sargeant

“Thank you to Now The Admin for saving me so much time by following their advice on getting everything ready in advance before starting the bereavement notification process. “

Steph Reilly

Contact us about your experience on using NowTheAdmin.co.uk as a guide for the death notification process

This website has been created as a practical guide to help anyone in the UK going through the difficult bereavement & death notification administrative process covering what to consider from the outset, what to do with a suggestion of who should be informed .

We hope you find it useful though it should not be considered definitive as requirements and laws change. You should keep in mind indivudual circumstances and always seek professional guidance when you are unsure.

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