Tell Us Once service

When someone has died, there are several organisations that need to know.

The ‘Tell Us Once’ service allows you to report a death once and we will do the rest on your behalf. We will give the information to the Department for Work and Pensions who will then pass it onto a number of other government departments and council services.

How to use the service

Once you’ve registered the death the registrar will explain how to use the service. You can:

  • tell us online (you will need a reference number which the registrar will give you)
  • call the Department for Work and Pensions on 0800 085 7308 (you will need a reference number which the registrar will give you)

Information you will need to provide

We will need the deceased’s:

  • National Insurance number
  • death certificate
  • details of any benefits or services they were receiving

We may ask for information about:

  • their next of kin
  • any surviving husband, wife or civil partner
  • anybody who is getting child benefit on their behalf
  • the person dealing with their estate

You must get the agreement of the people listed above if you are going to provide us with information about them.

If you are not the next of kin, or the person dealing with the deceased's estate, you can still use the service if you have the authority to act on their behalf.

Please remember that it is still your responsibility to make sure any organisation that pays a benefit has correct and up-to-date information.

Organisations 'Tell Us Once' will contact

We can contact the following organisations:

If you ask us to, we can also contact the following departments:

If you attend an appointment at the council we can also contact the following departments and organisations for you:

The organisations we give your information to will only use it as the law allows. We will only notify those services that you request.