Tell Us Once: what it covers and what families still need to do

What Tell Us Once actually does

When you use Tell Us Once, you can notify a range of government bodies in a single session. These include:

• HM Revenue and Customs

• the Department for Work and Pensions

• the Passport Office

• the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency

• your local council, which then handles council tax, housing benefit, and libraries

You access Tell Us Once through your local register office when you register the death, or online at gov.uk within 28 days of receiving the reference number from the registrar. You will need:

• the deceased's National Insurance number and date of birth

• details of any benefits, tax credits, or government services they used

• your own ID and contact details

The service is available across most of England, Scotland, and Wales. Northern Ireland operates a similar but separate process.

What Tell Us Once does not cover

Tell Us Once only reaches public sector organisations. It has no connection to the private sector.

The following sit entirely outside its scope, regardless of how many details you provide:

• banks and building societies

• insurers and pension providers

• utility companies and telecoms providers

• mortgage lenders

• subscription services and streaming platforms

• digital accounts such as PayPal, Apple ID, and email

This is where most of the administrative work actually sits. The average person holds accounts with a significant number of private organisations by the time they die: current accounts, savings, ISAs, credit cards, store cards, insurance policies, energy suppliers, mobile contracts, and others. Each requires a separate notification, through each organisation's own process, with its own documentation requirements.

Tell Us Once does not touch any of them.

Why this matters in practice

Families often leave the register office with the impression that the main administrative burden has been handled. Tell Us Once encourages that impression, because for government services, it has been.

The problem surfaces weeks or months later. Direct debits continue drawing from accounts. Subscriptions renew. Letters addressed to the person who died keep arriving. Refunds go unclaimed because accounts were never formally notified. In some cases, missed cancellations become arrears, or active accounts create exposure to mail theft and identity fraud.

None of this is the family's fault. The information gap is structural. There is no equivalent of Tell Us Once for the private sector, and there is no central register that automatically flags all accounts associated with a deceased person.

How to find out which private accounts exist

This is often the harder problem. People do not maintain a comprehensive list of their financial and digital accounts, and there is no obligation for organisations to make themselves known after a death unless they are contacted.

There are partial tools available:

• My Lost Account (mylostaccount.org.uk) lets you search for dormant bank accounts, savings accounts, and NS&I products including Premium Bonds

• The Pension Tracing Service (gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details) helps trace workplace and personal pensions where the provider details are unknown

• The Bereavement Register can reduce the volume of marketing mail arriving in the deceased's name

None of these tools provides a complete picture. They are starting points, not comprehensive solutions.

Bank statements, email inboxes, physical post, and direct debit records are often the most reliable sources for identifying what needs to be notified. A review of the deceased's bank statements over the preceding 12 months will typically reveal most active financial relationships.

What the notification process involves for private organisations

Each organisation has its own bereavement process. Most require:

• a death certificate, either as an original or a certified copy

• a grant of probate or letters of administration for higher-value accounts before funds can be released

• the account details or reference numbers for the deceased's accounts where known

Most banks have a dedicated bereavement team. Contacting that team directly, rather than a general customer service line, usually results in a more straightforward process. Many now accept notification by post or through a bereavement portal, though practice varies.

The volume of contacts required depends on the complexity of the deceased's financial and digital life. For someone with a modest number of accounts, it is still commonly a dozen or more separate processes, each requiring documentation, each with its own timeline.

What executors and administrators need to keep in mind

If you are acting as executor under a will, or as administrator where there is no will, you have a legal responsibility to identify and notify all relevant organisations, settle outstanding debts, and distribute the estate correctly. Missing an account is not a minor oversight: it can affect the accuracy of the estate accounts and, in some cases, create personal liability.

Probate or letters of administration will be required to access most sole accounts above a certain value. The threshold varies by institution but is commonly around £5,000 to £25,000. Some organisations will release funds without probate where a small estates declaration is accepted instead.

If you are dealing with a more complex estate, or one where assets may be scattered across multiple institutions, the process of locating and notifying all parties is likely to take considerably longer than expected.

A note on timing

There is no fixed legal deadline for notifying private organisations after a death, but delays create practical problems:

• ongoing payments continue until accounts are closed or cancelled

• interest may accrue on credit agreements

• fraud risk increases the longer accounts remain active and unmonitored

It is worth beginning the notification process as soon as practical circumstances allow, even if probate has not yet been granted. Many organisations can begin processing a notification and flag an account as a bereavement case before formal legal authority is in place.

The gap Tell Us Once leaves

Tell Us Once does what it says it does; notifying government bodies of a death. However, it cannot compel banks, insurers, or telecoms companies.

The result is that families are left to bridge that gap themselves, often without knowing how large it is, and at a time when the capacity for detailed administrative work is understandably limited.