Dealing with finances but no death certificate

skm1981

My father in law passed away two weeks ago.  They are waiting to do an autopsy on him and we've been told that a death certificate can't be issued until this is all finalized which they said can take up to 20 weeks, and they've said an interim death certificate can't be provided until the autopsy is done, but there's a delay on getting this done.  In the meantime, my father-in-law's pension is still being paid into his account and some direct debits are still set up.  Do you just have to leave these until you get the interim death certificate?

mr_stripey

you should be able to get an "interim" death certificate. This happened to my dad when he died. I forget what the document was called, but it allowed to start sorting out his affairs whilst waiting for the final death certificate to be issued (which was months later)

mr_stripey

https://www.gov.uk/after-a-death/when-a-death-is-reported-to-a-coroner

Get an interim death certificate during the inquest

If you need proof of the death while you wait for the inquest to finish, ask the coroner for an interim death certificate.

Use the interim death certificate to notify a registrar of the death while the inquest is still taking place.

You can use the interim death certificate to apply for probate.

To report a death to more than one government organisation at once:

1. Ask the coroner for the interim death certificate.

 

2. Find a registrar.

 

3. The registrar will either help you report the death or give you a unique reference number. Use this number to report the death using the Tell Us Once service.

Keep_pedalling

You should inform his pension company as those overpayments will need to be paid back. Also inform his bank (ring the bereavement team) they should not need a death certificate to freeze his accounts. 

If the direct debits are coming out of a joint account the serving account holder can stop the DDs.

poppystar

I second contacting the bank now. I had all my father’s accounts frozen without a death certificate - I’d initially rung to ask for his debit card to be blocked as it was somewhere in the hospital which I found worrying. (After what I found worrying was the ease with which the banks were happy to freeze his accounts and cards without proof of death but it put my mind at rest). Freezing the accounts meant that pensions and direct debit organisations were in effect notified by having payments returned or not delivered. 

skm1981

Thanks.  I'll speak to my sister in law as she's dealing with it.  She said that there's a delay on getting the interim death certificate.  It's been a bit of a mess, they lost my father in law's body for a few days and didn't know where it was, then the coroner said they were waiting for my father in law's doctor to do something about acknowledging the death.  I'm not sure what, but that was sitting in the doctor's pile of things to do, so hadn't been done.  It's just all been a bit messy.

msb1234

That’s awful! I wouldn’t worry too much about any overpayments. They will just sit in the bank and once everything is sorted you can repay them. If you know who the direct debits are being paid to, you could phone their bereavement team and they will tell you the next steps.