Immediately after the death it can seem that you are having to repeat what is incredibly sensitive information, at a time of extreme heightened emotions, endlessly to a wide variety of people. It is helpful to make lists, group individuals and organisations into different categories and enlist the help of family and close friends.
Family: Use trusted family contacts to inform other family members. Friends: Do the same with friends and ask them to make a note of who has been contacted and when. We would recommend that you use our memorial pages service available on our website where we can upload the funeral details for you instead of using social media. You can then refer family, friends and any other close contacts to this page. Work: If you do not have contact details of a close colleague or line manager, call and ask to speak to the Human Resources or Personnel department. A good employer will arrange a liaison person for you, so you can let them know if work colleagues will be welcome at the funeral and also any support the employer can offer. Department for Work & Pensions and other central and local government agencies: If you were able to use Tell Us Once when you registered the death, this will have been done for you. Otherwise you will need to inform them individually. The most important are the DWP and any local government paid benefits, so that payments to the person who died are stopped immediately and you do not later have to repay money from the estate. Medical appointments: If someone has died in hospital, all appointments for that hospital should be canceled and the GP informed of the death. The NHS does not have a single notification system, so you will need to inform any other hospital where there may be appointments arranged, especially if patient transport has been booked. Banks and other financial organisations: Although you may not want to have to think about money at this difficult time, it is important to ensure that bank accounts are protected from fraud. Joint accounts are very rarely frozen and immediately become the property of the named joint account holder. Accounts just in the name of the person who died (sole name) will be frozen once the bank has been notified of the death. Someone who is an authorised signatory on an account should not carry out any transactions after the death, as the permission for them to do so ended with the death of the account holder. Aim to notify banks of the death within a week. Completing their other forms can usually wait a little longer and may have to become part of the probate process. Mail suppression: Many registrars of death, hospitals and funeral directors offer the opportunity to complete a form that helps to suppress direct mail, otherwise known as junk mail. Several companies provide this and it is always a free service to the bereaved person. It is never one hundred percent effective but it can significantly reduce the amount of unwanted mail that comes and also helps to prevent identity theft.