Natwest - Bereavement money transfer

LucasWAG

Hi all! My family has a bit of a sticky wicket at the moment and while I can see the obvious resolution, this is not something that has been proposed by the bank so it's left us a bit concerned.

Sadly a few weeks ago my father in law passed away, it took a bit of time to obtain the Death Certificate due to the Bank Holiday period, but eventually we obtained it. The father in law was a customer of Natwest, which is the same bank as the next of kin (My wife).

She went in to the bank directly and provided several documents - Death Certificate, his Birth Certificate, her Birth Certificate where the main ones I do believe. The bank assistant felt this was sufficient, gathered the documents and raised the Bereavement process for the money (Less than £10,000?).

A few days ago we received a letter from Natwest saying the information provided was not accepted as proof of identity for my wife. They provided a Table A and Table B of one piece of identification so that they can proceed with the transferal of funds.

While we could supply the Council Tax statement to meet the criteria of Table B, she has no actual ID now for Table A. The only thing which could be accepted is a Child Benefit document, I did come across a letter from them within these past few weeks albeit it looks like this has been mis-placed.

She had a passport, but this expired about 5 years ago - But it was in her maiden name any way so this would not have helped. I handle all correspondence/bills, so this is all in my name. I tried setting up a Government Gateway account for her to see about obtaining any documents, but once again they're asking for the exact same identification methods so we're essentially stuck.

The irritating thing about this is, my wife is also a Natwest customer. As per my first paragraph I immediately felt this would be concluded had they accepted that she is one of their customers, therefor she will have already passed identification processes historically in setting up her Natwest bank account. But they seemed to rule this out in their explanation albeit this was referencing Table A which we had covered any way.

The last form of ID which was ruled out, which I am completely confused by is - Birth Certificate/Marriage Certificate. It is explained on the document that "This should only be used in the event none of the above are available (They're not) - This is for Under 20's ONLY"

I don't know if the only way about it would be to reach out to the Child Benefit office and ask them for a re-copy of a recent correspondence for her, but this will likely take several days on top of then having to re-issue the documents to Natwest?

Voyager2002

Usually it is quick and easy to get a Notice of Coding from HMRC. 
https://www.protaxaccountant.co.uk/post/tax-code-notice

Hoenir

LucasWAG said:

The irritating thing about this is, my wife is also a Natwest customer. As per my first paragraph I immediately felt this would be concluded had they accepted that she is one of their customers, therefor she will have already passed identification processes historically in setting up her Natwest bank account. 

How long ago ? The introduction of KYC has resulted in rechecking to bring customer information up to date. 

Emmia

Not having a photo ID like a passport, driving licence etc. is likely to make life increasingly tricky. 

NatWest could for example decide to undertake a KYC check on all customers who had held their account for X years. Or there could be a new regulation that requires banks to do this periodically.

Is it worth your wife applying for a new passport or could she get a photo driving licence? (full or provisional).

Rudyson

I recently applied for a renewal of an outdated passport, and it only took 9 working days. I know it's an irritation if you don't intend to use it, but it may be the quickest solution

SevenOfNine

When my mum died NatWest where the WORST bank to deal with, incapable of even freezing her a/c though I was named on it, had the death cert & lots of my own photo ID & address proof! 

Birth cert, marriage cert & already a customer should be enough along with proof of address & FiLs death cert.

I decided on the best, & quickest way forward was a formal complaint. Easy to do & that got them to pull their finger out, even adding a little compensation to my deceased mum's a/c (I hadn't asked for that).

EssexExile

SevenOfNine said:

When my mum died NatWest where the WORST bank to deal with, incapable of even freezing her a/c though I was named on it, had the death cert & lots of my own photo ID & address proof! 

Birth cert, marriage cert & already a customer should be enough along with proof of address & FiLs death cert.

I decided on the best, & quickest way forward was a formal complaint. Easy to do & that got them to pull their finger out, even adding a little compensation to my deceased mum's a/c (I hadn't asked for that).

Same here.