In grief, make the admin smaller and safer

When someone dies, the money admin can feel cold and overwhelming. The aim is not to become an expert while grieving. The aim is to take the next safe step, avoid scams, keep records and know which tasks are urgent and which can wait.

This page is not legal advice. Complex estates, disputes, property, overseas assets, businesses, inheritance tax or vulnerable dependants may need professional help.

First practical steps

• Register the death and use Tell Us Once where available to notify government departments.
• Keep several copies of key documents and a simple log of calls, reference numbers and letters.
• Do not share bank details with unexpected callers. Use official contact routes.

Money accounts, bills and benefits

• Tell banks, pension providers, insurers, employers, utility providers and landlords or mortgage lenders.
• Check whether any bills were in the deceased person only and what needs to continue for the household.
• Check Bereavement Support Payment or other benefits if a partner, parent or carer has died.

Estate, probate and debt

• Do not start paying debts personally unless you know you are liable.
• Keep estate money separate from your own money.
• Check whether probate or confirmation is needed before assets can be distributed.

The simple action order

Where this connects on UK Tax Drag

Use this guide as the plain-English route, then open the calculator or worksheet that matches the immediate decision.

Official sources and further guidance

• GOV.UK: what to do after someone dies
• GOV.UK: Tell Us Once
• GOV.UK: bereavement help and support
• MoneyHelper: what to do when someone dies

Registering the death and using Tell Us Once

In England, Wales and Northern Ireland a death normally has to be registered within five days, usually at the register office for the area where the person died. Scotland allows eight days and runs its own system through National Records of Scotland. You will need the medical certificate of cause of death; the registrar then issues the death certificate. Buy several certified copies at the same time — banks, pension schemes and insurers usually want an original rather than a photocopy, and ordering more later costs more and takes longer.

When you register, the registrar will normally offer Tell Us Once. This free government service lets you report a death once and have it passed to most central and local government bodies in one go — HMRC, the DWP (for the State Pension and other benefits), the Passport Office, the DVLA, the local council (for Council Tax, Blue Badge and electoral roll) and often the deceased's public-service pension scheme. You are given a unique reference number to use online or by phone. Tell Us Once does not contact banks, private pension providers, insurers, utilities or landlords, so you still need to notify those yourself.

• Ask the registrar for the Tell Us Once reference, or call the service within about 28 days.
• Have to hand: the deceased's National Insurance number, date of birth, and details of any benefits, State Pension and driving licence or passport.
• If you live in Scotland, Tell Us Once is offered in most council areas in the same way.

Bereavement Support Payment and other help

Bereavement Support Payment may be available if your husband, wife or civil partner — or, since 2023, the partner you lived with and had children with — died and they had paid enough National Insurance, or died because of an accident at work or a work-related disease. It is paid in two parts: a one-off lump sum followed by monthly instalments for up to 18 months. There is a higher rate for people who were getting Child Benefit (or were entitled to it) and a standard rate for everyone else. The payment is tax-free and is ignored for most means-tested benefits for a year, but you generally have to claim within three months of the death to get the full amount, so this is one to act on early. Check the current rates and the claim form on GOV.UK.

If money is tight before the estate is sorted out, a Funeral Expenses Payment (called a Funeral Support Payment in Scotland) can help with funeral costs if you receive certain benefits. Where there is genuinely no money and no one able to pay, the local council or hospital may arrange a public health funeral. The funeral director's bill is one of the few debts that can usually be paid from the deceased's bank account before probate — ask the bank.

Bank accounts, pensions and ongoing benefits

Contact each bank and building society and ask for their bereavement team. Most have a dedicated process and many use a shared notification service so you only tell them once. A sole account is usually frozen on notification, though the bank can normally release money to pay the funeral, Inheritance Tax or probate fees. A joint account normally passes automatically to the surviving holder and keeps working. Direct debits and standing orders for things that have ended (subscriptions, the deceased's phone) should be cancelled, but be careful not to stop payments the household still needs.

For pensions, the rules depend on the type. A defined contribution pot is usually paid to whoever the member nominated on their expression-of-wish form, and is often paid outside the estate. A defined benefit or final-salary scheme may pay a survivor's pension to a spouse, civil partner or dependent child. Many workplace schemes also pay a death-in-service lump sum if the person was still employed — this is easy to miss, so ask the employer. The State Pension stops on death, but a surviving spouse or civil partner may inherit part of it; report this through Tell Us Once or the Pension Service.

• Any benefits or State Pension paid after the date of death usually have to be repaid — do not spend them.
• Keep a written log of every organisation contacted, the date, the reference number and what they said.
• Watch for unexpected calls or emails; criminals target the recently bereaved using information from public notices.

Tax, probate and Inheritance Tax basics

HMRC needs to settle the deceased's final income tax position. Tell Us Once usually informs HMRC, which will work out whether tax was overpaid (a refund due to the estate) or underpaid. If the person completed Self Assessment, a final return may be needed. Any income the estate itself earns during administration — for example interest or rent before assets are distributed — can also be taxable.

Probate (called confirmation in Scotland) is the legal authority to deal with the estate. You often need it before banks will release larger balances or before a property can be sold or transferred. Whether it is required depends on the size and type of the assets — small estates and assets held jointly may not need it. If there is a will, the named executors apply; if not, the rules of intestacy decide who can apply and who inherits. You can apply yourself through GOV.UK or instruct a solicitor for a complex estate.

Most estates pay no Inheritance Tax (IHT). Each person has a nil-rate band of £325,000, and an additional residence nil-rate band of up to £175,000 can apply when a home is left to children or grandchildren. Anything left to a spouse or civil partner is normally exempt from IHT, and any unused nil-rate bands can usually be transferred to the survivor — so a married couple or civil partners can often pass on up to £1 million between them. IHT is charged at 40% on the value above the available bands. The figures and the interaction between the bands are detailed, so use our Inheritance tax calculator and read the probate and Inheritance Tax guide for a fuller picture, and take advice for larger or business estates.

First two weeks versus first three months

Grief and admin do not run on the same clock. It helps to separate the few things that are genuinely time-sensitive from the larger tasks that can wait until you have the headspace. Nothing here has to be done perfectly or alone.

If at any point this feels like too much, Citizens Advice and MoneyHelper both offer free, calm, step-by-step help, and many funeral directors and faith or community groups can point you to local bereavement support.