Dealing with bereavement - Tell Us Once
On today’s programme (13 January 2026) we were joined by consumer expert Martyn James, who mentioned Tell Us Once, a service which allows people to tell a range of government bodies all in one go that someone has recently died. It can be used in England, Scotland and Wales.
Who is notified?
- HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) - to deal with tax and some benefits
- Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) - to cancel benefits and entitlements such as Universal Credit
- Passport Office and DVLA
- The local council - to deal with Housing Benefit, Council Tax and remove the person from the electoral register, among other things
- Social Security Scotland - to cancel benefits and entitlements from the Scottish Government, for example Scottish Child Payment
- Some public sector pension providers and other organisations
Companies like banks, insurance providers, utilities and most private sector workplace pension providers need to be contacted separately.
How it works
When a death is registered, the registrar should inform you about Tell Us Once, and provide a unique reference number. This can be used to access the scheme by phone or online.
Full details on Tell Us Once can be found at gov.uk by clicking here.
Settld
We’ve previously featured a free service called Settld, which says it works with 1,400 companies and can notify multiple organisations about a death in one go. Its website is settled.care
