Dear LPG,

You might remember a message that I wrote recently on a somewhat depressing subject; the added difficulties caused when trying to deal with the administration needed after someone close to you dies (►►►).   I feel the need to depress you readers a little more in the hope of offering some added information and, as one who was not as close to the pain that the death of a friend’s husband causes, perhaps it is easier for me to offer this post script to that earlier post.  

My first message tried to relate the difficulty and frustration that is a part of registering a death at a time when a newly bereaved person is going through so much other personal trauma. 

After hours of trying to get through to all the government agencies that need to be told, the DWP, HMRC, housing benefit office, council tax office and the DVLA, to name but a few, I learned of the ‘Tell us Once’ service which allows you to complete one online form that will inform many agencies of a death without the need to force you to repeat the act of relating information that is so painful for obvious reasons. 

I learned about this service after a week of trying to get through to many of the agencies mentioned above, and a week spent getting used to being told that I needed an alternative agency before being offered a website address or telephone number, but before the friend I was trying to help asked for my help, she phoned the registry office because, as with everything else, visits had been suspended.  She was asked for an email address and gave her sister’s, and then completely forgot to look for an email there.  I suppose that at such a time, it is very easy to miss a lot of what you are told. 

The registry office used the email address to send her a code which, in the normal way of things, would have been given to her during the visit that she was unable to make.  The code would have allowed her to do all that telephoning by making just one call.   Armed with a few details, that code and their telephone number, 0800 634 9494, so much waiting time could have been avoided and the details could also have been taken over the phone. 

I hope that my message will not apply to any readers but while covid-19 continues to keep some government offices closed, I wanted to put the record straight. I have asked LPG to post this message in the hope that it may come to mind and save some of the heartache that this aspect of being the one left behind to do the official paperwork entails. 

I would also like to say that I call upon the advisors of all those other agencies to have this bit of information to hand and offer it in addition to all the other numbers that they so readily give out to those who contact them looking for this particular genre of help.

GF left some information that may be useful…

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