Paying an employee who has died

You must make all outstanding payments when an employee dies. Put the date they died into the ‘Date of leaving’ field in your next Full Payment Submission ( FPS ), and deduct tax using their existing tax code. Use category letter X so that you do not deduct National Insurance. Do not produce a P45. Payments to a person who has died are usually made to the personal representative or executor of that person’s estate. If you make a mistake If an employee dies and you did not report it in the right FPS , follow the guidance for when an employee leaves . Making a late payment If you need to pay someone after you’ve sent an FPS with their ‘Date of leaving’ (the date they died): use tax code 0T on a ‘week 1’ or ‘month 1’ basis include their ‘Date of leaving’ and put ‘Yes’ in the ‘Payment after leaving indicator’ field in your FPS choose ‘H - Correction to an earlier submission’ in the ‘Late payment reason’ field update the year-to-date figures - or if it’s a new tax year, make sure the year-to-date figures only include the additional payment

Paying a pensioner who has died

You must make all outstanding payments when someone receiving your company pension dies. Put the date they died in the ‘Date of leaving’ field in your next Full Payment Submission ( FPS ), and work out their final pension payment. Working out tax Use their existing tax code unless it’s a new tax year by the time you pay them. If it’s a new tax year and you have not reported their ‘Date of leaving’ (the date they died) on an FPS yet, use their new tax code. Otherwise, use tax code 0T on a ‘week 1’ or ‘month 1’ basis and put ‘Yes’ in the ‘Payment after leaving indicator’ field in your FPS . Payments to a person who has died are usually made to the personal representative or executor of that person’s estate. If you pay someone after their death If you’ve made a pension payment to someone after they died (for example because you were told about their death late), you should get the overpayment back from their executor. Put the pensioner’s ‘Date of leaving’ (the date they died) on your next FPS , and choose ‘H - Correction to an earlier submission’ in the ‘Late reporting reason’ field. If you do not know the date they died, put the date of their final pension payment as their ‘Date of leaving’. Amend the year-to-date figures if you get the overpayment back. If it’s a new tax year by the time you find out a pensioner has died: put ‘0.00’ in the year-to-date figures for pay and tax in your FPS send either an Earlier Year Update ( EYU ) or an FPS with the correct year to date figures for the previous year

What to do when an employee dies

Reporting a workplace death

You must report a death in the workplace (except in Northern Ireland) to the:

police
Health and Safety Executive (HSE)

HSE Incident Contact Centre
0845 300 9923
Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 5pm

Report a workplace death in Northern Ireland to the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland (HSENI).

You must report any deaths or serious injuries, even if the employee is working off-site at the time.

View a printable version of the whole guide

What to do when an employee dies

Reporting a workplace death

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What to do when an employee dies

Reporting a workplace death

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