What to do after someone dies

Skip contents

Tell Us Once

Tell Us Once is a service that lets you report a death to most government organisations in one go.

You do not need to provide proof of the death certificate when you use Tell Us Once.

This guide is also available in Easy Read format and in Welsh (Cymraeg).

Who can use Tell Us Once

You can use the service if the person who died was living in England, Scotland or Wales.

There’s a different process to report the death of someone who was living in Northern Ireland - there is no Tell Us Once service.

You can use the service if the person died while they were abroad temporarily, for example on a holiday or a business trip.

You cannot use the service if they were living abroad permanently. Instead you’ll need to report the death to government organisations directly.

Dealing with your own benefits

If you’re receiving benefits or entitlements that are linked to the person who died you must contact the office that pays you separately. They’ll tell you how your payments might be affected and if you need to make a new claim.

This includes if a child or baby has died.

If anyone else was claiming benefits or entitlements linked to the person who died, tell them to contact the office that pays them to find out how they’re affected.

How to use Tell Us Once

You must register the death before you use Tell Us Once. The registrar will give you a unique reference number which you’ll need to use the service.

You must use your unique reference number within 28 days or it will expire and the registrar may not give you a new one. If that happens, you’ll need to report the death to government organisations directly.

If there’s an inquest

If you cannot register the death because an inquest is underway, you can still use Tell Us Once. You’ll need to ask the coroner for an interim death certificate. You can then ask a registrar for a Tell Us Once reference number.

What you’ll need

To use Tell Us Once you’ll need the:

• surname of the person who died
• date they died
• Tell Us Once reference number that you got from the registrar

If they had any of the following, you’ll need to provide:

• their UK passport number and place of birth as it appears on the passport
• their UK driving licence number
• the vehicle registration numbers of any vehicles they owned
• their Blue Badge number, if you know it

You’ll need to know if the person who died was:

• paying Council Tax or getting services from their local council, such as Housing Benefit payments
• getting any benefits or State Pension
• getting money from an Armed Forces Pension or Compensation Scheme

You’ll need the National Insurance number of the person who died if they were getting money from or paying into any of the following pension schemes:

• Civil Service Pension Scheme
• Local Government Pension Schemes (LGPS)
• NHS Pensions for NHS staff in England and Wales
• Pension Protection Fund and Financial Assistance Scheme
• Scottish Public Pension Agency schemes for NHS staff, teachers, police and firefighters in Scotland

If they are not in one of these pension schemes, you can still provide their National Insurance number. It will help some organisations match their records.

You’ll be asked to provide the name, address and contact details of the person’s:

• spouse or civil partner, if they had one
• next of kin, if there is no spouse or civil partner
• ‘executor’ or ‘administrator’ if they have one - this is the person or company legally responsible for dealing with their property, belongings and money (their estate)

You must have permission to share the contact details of the spouse, civil partner or next of kin. If you do not have their contact details, or you do not have permission to share them, you do not need to provide them.

You’ll also be asked to provide:

• the National Insurance number or date of birth of the spouse or civil partner, if you have their permission to share it
• the relationship of the next of kin to the person who died

If the person died in a hospital, nursing home, care home or hospice, you’ll need:

• the name and address of the institution
• to know if they were there for 28 days or longer

Use Tell Us Once online

You’ll choose which organisations Tell Us Once will notify, but you can only use the service once.

If you need to tell a government organisation after you’ve used Tell Us Once, you’ll need to report the death to that organisation directly.

Organisations Tell Us Once can contact

Tell Us Once can notify:

• HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) - to deal with personal tax and to cancel benefits and credits, for example Child Benefit
• Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) - to cancel benefits and entitlements, for example Universal Credit or State Pension
• Passport Office - to cancel a UK passport
• Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) - to cancel a UK driving licence, remove the person as the keeper of up to 5 vehicles and end the vehicle tax
• the local council – for example, to update Housing Benefit, Council Tax, a Blue Badge, council housing services, and the electoral register
• Veterans UK - to cancel or update Armed Forces Compensation Scheme payments
• Social Security Scotland - to cancel benefits and entitlements from the Scottish Government, for example Scottish Child Payment

Tell Us Once can also contact some public sector pension schemes so that they cancel future pension payments. They can notify:

• Armed Forces Pension Scheme
• Civil Service Pension Scheme
• Local Government Pension Schemes (LGPS)
• NHS Pensions for NHS staff in England and Wales
• Pension Protection Fund and Financial Assistance Scheme
• Scottish Public Pension Agency schemes for NHS staff, teachers, police and firefighters in Scotland

Other organisations you must tell

If the person who died:

• was self-employed or owned a business, you need to contact HMRC separately
• owned land or property, you need to update the property records
• had a student loan, you need to tell the Student Loans Company
• had a lasting power of attorney or a deputy making decisions for them, or they acted as an attorney or deputy for someone else, you need to tell the Office of the Public Guardian (England and Wales) or Office of the Public Guardian (Scotland)
• owned a vehicle, and you sell it or keep it and tax it in your own name, you need to tell DVLA separately

To close or change the details of the person’s accounts, you’ll need to contact organisations like:

• banks
• mortgage providers
• insurance providers
• companies that the person had contracts with, like utility companies, landlords or housing associations
• TV licensing
• personal or workplace pension schemes, unless they’re one of the public sector pension schemes that Tell Us Once contacts

You can search for contact information for the person’s pension schemes.

If you do not use Tell Us Once

You must report the death to government organisations directly.

View a printable version of the whole guide