What to Do After a Death in England or Wales

The Department of Work and Pensions

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) leads the Government's response to some of the biggest issues facing the country - welfare and pension reform - and is a key player in tackling child poverty. It is the biggest public service delivery department in the UK and serves over 20 million customers.

The DWP promotes that it plays a vital role in making a difference to millions of people in Great Britain every day, helping them to lead safer, fairer and more rewarding lives, free from poverty.

Job Centre Plus is part of the DWP that services, and is the government-funded employment agency facility and the social security office for working-age people in the UK.

The agency formed when the Employment Service, which operated Job Centres and existed alongside separate social security benefits offices, merged with the Benefits Agency to become and re-branded as Jobcentre Plus. It is an executive agency of the DWP and reports directly to the Minister of State for Employment and Welfare Reform.

Part of Jobcentre's service is to deal with qualifying claimants of the social fund wishing to gain help covering funeral costs.

Jobcentre Plus produces a leaflet about making arrangements for a funeral entitled ‘what to do after a death in England or Wales’, (D1027).

The leaflet D1027 makes obvious to its readers, that one may carry out a funeral independent of a funeral undertaker, but points the public wishing to do so, to the Natural Death Centre (NDC), or their own Local Authority (LA).

This leaflet does not make obvious that a qualifying claimant of the social fund who is wishing to conduct their private arrangements independent of a funeral undertaker, may receive a payment made payable direct to themselves.

The legislation relating to a Funeral Payment from the Social Fund does not require that the customer uses the services of a funeral director in order to receive a payment. It is possible for family and friends to organise a funeral without the help of a funeral director but anyone wishing to do so should contact the Cemeteries and Crematorium Department of their Local Authority for advice and guidance on how to proceed.

The Natural Death Centre claims to be unique in providing the only independent funeral advice service in the UK. They provide information on all types of funeral choices, but are especially known for advice and support on family-organised, environmentally-friendly funerals, and Natural Burial Grounds.

Contrary to their claims, they are not the only independent funeral advisor, as there exists the Good Funeral Guide, which is the first independent consumer guide to the funeral industry with listings of best funeral directors and other best providers of services and merchandise.

The NDC holds Charity status and for many years the NDC has managed to operate on a small budget, but in the summer of 2008 it hit financial difficulties. The trustees express thanks to the great efforts of volunteers and very generous donations received, that the NDC has now achieved financial stability. The NDC helpline will be answered Monday – Friday 11.00 am – 2.00 pm.

Many years ago the Government issued all Local Authority managers of cemeteries and crematoriums, with a list of information they wanted displayed on council websites and one of the pages that E-Government wanted shown was details of caring for a deceased body (last offices), independent/DIY funerals (burials & cremations).

Each authority for cemeteries and crematoriums is independent of each other and determines their own opening hours. Milton Keynes Crematorium is managed between Monday to Friday 9.00 am to 5.00 pm. They have one member of staff on site from 11.00 am – 3.00 pm every Saturday, Sundays and Bank Holidays, except Christmas Day and Boxing Day when they are open from 9.00 am – 1.00 pm.

If families wish to make an appointment for particular advice at a weekend this can normally be co-ordinated either with the manager or a member of her team, all they will ask is that this is booked a couple of days in advance. (Email)

The Department of Health

The Department of Health (DH) exists to improve the health and wellbeing of people in England. The DH works to define policy and guidance for delivering a social, public and health care system that provides care equally for all, whilst enabling people to retain their independence, control and dignity. In 2005, the DH published a document that had been developed for the NHS to provide advice on the basic principles and elements considered necessary in developing bereavement services locally. The advice also described actual experiences and practical solutions already in place in some Trusts.

In August 2006, the DH published good practice guidance for NHS Mortuary staff. This guidance is, intended to provide a resource for professionals, those managing and working in NHS mortuaries, which they can use to review their practice and protocols for best practice. It is hoped by the DH, that this will ensure local systems are set up to minimise the opportunities for error, and ensure they reflect the underlying principles of care and respect in all areas of their work.

Care and respect guidance includes information about caring for a deceased body, and makes obvious to staff that the bereaved are able to provide this care themselves, coupled with the knowledge that the bereaved may collect a body from a mortuary with their own suitable casket and vehicle, independent of a funeral undertaker. This information is not contained or conveyed in the leaflet intended to better inform the bereaved of suicide, and other sudden, traumatic deaths entitled ‘Help is at Hand’.

Help is at Hand, 2008 edition, is intended as a tool aimed at the wide range of people who are affected by suicide or other sudden, traumatic death. The DH consider that it aims is first to help people who are unexpectedly bereaved in this way. It is also intended to provide information for healthcare and other professionals who come into contact with bereaved people, to assist them in providing help and to suggest how they themselves may find support if they need it.

The Help is at Hand guide incorporates a paragraph on directing the bereaved wishing to make their own private arrangements to the NDC, and their LA.

Despite much guidance produced by the DH, the Healthcare Commission published a report entitled ‘Spotlight of Complaints’ in January 2007, which identified that over half of the 17,000 complaints received related to end of life care, after death care and care of newly bereaved people.

The Ministry of Justice

Part of the Ministry’s role is a responsibility for the law and policy, governing coroners and deal with the operation of the current coroner system. Their responsibilities include cross-government liaison on coroner matters; queries and advice to ministers, coroners, local authorities and the public; liaison with coroners and bereavement groups.

The Ministry of Justice is planning to issue a replacement combined booklet bringing together and updating the information currently included in the two leaflets ‘The Work of the Coroner’ and ‘When Sudden Death Occurs’ which was published by the Home Office for the former Department for Constitutional Affairs whose responsibilities have now passed to the Ministry for Justice.

The current booklet entitled ‘when sudden death occurs’, contains several sections which relate to arranging a funeral, post mortem and Inquests.

If a post mortem reveals that the death was due to natural causes and that an inquest is not needed, the coroner will release the body and the next of kin can register the death. The funeral can then take place. If there is to be an inquest, the coroner can normally issue a burial order or cremation certificate after the post mortem is completed. If charges have been brought against somebody for causing the death, it may be necessary to have a second post mortem or further investigations, and the release of the body and the funeral arrangements will be delayed.

If the death was due to natural causes, the coroner will inform the registrar and the death can be registered and a Death Certificate issued. But, if there is to be an inquest, an Interim Certificate of Fact of Death can be issued by the coroner to assist in the administration of the estate. When the inquest is completed, the coroner will notify the registrar. A Death Certificate can then be obtained.

The current booklet makes no reference to rights of the bereaved which pertain directly to information about caring for a deceased relative at home, whether the death was caused by natural or unnatural death, or collecting and transporting a deceased person with their own suitable casket and vehicle.

The new booklet is intended as a means to remove the overlap in the information provided. As with the existing leaflets this new booklet is intended to be distributed by coroners to bereaved families.(email)

The situation on the 'guide' that is to be published is that as yet there is no publication date. The Ministry has received lots of comments from different organisations and they are receiving careful consideration. (Email)

Teresa Evans, campaigner for the Rights of the Bereaved at www.evansaboveonline.co.uk , expresses that she has reservations that both the NDC and Local Authorities will in every circumstance, meet the needs of practical arrangements for bereaved people. She is especially concerned about the bereaved who have lost a relative to suicide, and other sudden, traumatic death, or in some circumstances, outside of their home district.

In December 2006, Sir David Varney published his report to HM Treasury’s Chancellor of the Exchequer on Service Transformation: a Better Service for Citizens and Business’s, a Better Deal for Taxpayers. One of Sir David’s ideas was that government should set up a change in circumstances service so that citizens could report changes in their lives to government just once.

From this report, the DWP created the ‘Tell Us Once’ project and the first areas the team have been asked to look at include the reporting of a death.

Reporting the death of a loved one to the various government services that may have had a relationship with the person who has died is often a difficult and time consuming task. Government, in particular, often expects citizens to navigate their own way around the many islands of service delivery, often without a map, and at a time when people may be least able to do it. Tell Us Once is aiming to make that journey easier.

Many organisations already provide their own advice and information on what to do when someone dies. Although well intended this can lead to the inconsistencies, errors and apparent selectivity of content as each organisation reflects its own views and strategies within their leaflets. It also causes a lot of duplication of effort as much of the core information given is essentially the same and could therefore be captured in one place.

One outcome that the team of the project is working toward, is the collation of standard and consistent advice on what to do after a death that can be accessed easily. For example, they are working with Directgov to develop a web based service that will (eventually) enable people to report a death to government services over the internet, should they choose to do it in that way. Part of that service will be the development of a 'Show Me How' information store that will enable citizens to access the information they need from one source.

Andy Carroll, leader of the project team, would expect that service to build on the existing information that is available on the Directgov site under its existing Rights and Responsibilities section.

The case for a single definitive guide for the public

In light of the Varney review, Teresa Evans considers that all relevant central government agencies, which include the DWP, the Department of Health (DH) and the Ministry of Justice (MJ), collaborate in drafting one definitive guide about what to do privately after a death in England or Wales, as opposed to the array of limited information that is currently available.

Teresa Evans believes that a definitive guide could prove invaluable in how to prepare a body for burial or cremation (last Offices), alongside information that makes it obvious to the bereaved that they may collect the deceased body from a mortuary, (if the person has died away from home), with their own suitable casket and vehicle, and conduct their own funeral either by burial or cremation. Further she believes that this information should be delivered by ‘default’.

It is her idea that this approach could possibly save the taxpayer from a great deal of wasted money best spent elsewhere.