"GDPR Says Yes"

A service provided by gov.uk enabling central government departments and agencies to be notified of a death.

Tell us Once will notify:

• HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) - to deal with personal tax and to cancel benefits and credits, for example Child Benefit and tax credits

• Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) - to cancel benefits and entitlements, for example Universal Credit or State Pension

• Passport Office - to cancel a British passport

• Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) - to cancel a licence, remove the person as the keeper of up to 5 vehicles and end the vehicle tax

• the local council - to cancel Housing Benefit, Council Tax Reduction (sometimes called Council Tax Support), a Blue Badge, inform council housing services and remove the person from 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 is activated when a death is registered, but the applicant needs to provide a long list of information, some but not all of which may be easily available. There appears to be some inefficiency in the information required, for example:

• The applicant is asked for details of the deceased's benefits or tax credits, but not for their NI number (unless they were a member of a public sector pension scheme)

• They are also asked for the deceased's passport number and town of birth, but the passport number would presumably give HMPO the town of birth, and in any case it's on the death certificate. 

Tell us Once doesn't appear to notify the NHS, nor is the NHS number listed among the information needed from the applicant. The NHS presumably gets its notification from the doctor who certifies the death, but it would be useful to see how the information populates NHS systems. (Spine/Personal Demographics Service? Does this reach everyone who needs to know, e.g. primary/seconday/community care, pharmacists, dentists etc?)

The Child Support Agency isn't listed among government departments notified.

The list of council services notified doesn't appear to include social care (which ought to be using the NHS number as its unique identifier), notwithstanding the information on the Bereavement Advice Centre site which states that social care is included.