Receiving mail through the post for a loved one who is now deceased can be an upsetting experience.
Whether the letters come weeks, months or years after they have left you, receiving a letter and seeing their name can bring up uncomfortable and upsetting memories. The usual strategy of stopping letters is of course to ring up the ones you are aware of and inform them of your loved one’s death. However, it can be difficult.
For example, while you may be aware of some common associations your loved one had, such as the bank that they did their banking with and the doctors and dentist surgery that they used, you may not perhaps know who they hold pensions or savings with, or who they have their car insurance with. It might be that hundreds of companies have their personal details and may want to contact them on a regular basis.
Once you do discover who holds your loved one’s details on record, it can be difficult to process their removal. There is often no ‘one size fits all’ approach and different companies and organisations will want different types of paperwork filling out or may want you to phone particular numbers and answer certain questions before beginning the process of removing your loved one’s details.
The entire process can become very tiresome and difficult and is often exasperated by your own feelings of grief during this time which makes having to repeatedly inform people of your loved one’s death a very upsetting experience. Luckily, there are resources than can make the job easier.
Tell Us Once
The Tell Us Once service allows you to report a loved one’s death to various government organizations in one go, rather than informing them individually yourself.
In order to use the service, you will need your loved one’s date of birth, National Insurance number, driving license number, vehicle registration number, and passport number, where applicable. You’ll also need details of any benefits or entitlements they were receiving, any council services they were receiving such as disability badges, the name and address of their next of kin and any surviving spouses or civil partners, the name and address and contact details of the individual dealing with their estate (the executor or administrator) and details of any public sector pension schemes they may be receiving.
The Tell Us Once service will then notify a series of government organisations including:
- HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC)
- Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)
- Passport Office
- Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA)
- Their local council
- Veterans UK
- My Civil Service Pension
- NHS Pension Scheme
- Armed Forces Pension Scheme
Banks and other financial organisations
When it comes to banks, mortgages, and some pension and insurance providers, you will typically need to contact the company involved. However, a new service called the Death Notification Service allows you to contact various banks all at once. They include:
- Bank of Scotland
- Barclaycard
- Barclays
- Cahoot
- Clerical Medical
- First Direct
- Halifax
- HSBC
- Lloyds Bank
- M&S Bank
- Nationwide Building Society
- NatWest
- Santander
- Scottish Widows
- The Mortgage Works
- UCB Home Loans LTD
Another free service you can use to stop unwanted mail to your loved one is the Deceased Preference Service. You can find out more here: https://www.deceasedpreferenceservice.co.uk or call them directly on 0800 068 4433.
If you have been recently bereaved and would like help planning a loved one’s funeral, please contact Cravens Funerals. Our compassionate and professional team have years of experience creating funerals that are completely unique to the individual and respectful of the circumstances of their passing. For help and advice please contact us on 0151 228 3900 or leave us a message through our contact us page by clicking here.