Practical things to do after a death

There are practical things you need to do when someone dies. This can be hard to deal with at such a difficult time.

When the person dies

You can stay with your loved one's body for a while. It might be helpful to have someone there to support you.

You are likely to feel very shocked, even if you were well prepared and expected it to happen.

Being with the person after their death

If your relative or friend dies in a hospital or a hospice, you might find that you would like to go back and see them again after you've left. You can make this visit by contacting the ward staff. They will arrange for you to see the body in the mortuary.

There are private rooms in the mortuary specifically for this. You will be able to spend some time alone with your friend or relative. Most mortuaries will be able to help you with any religious needs you might have.

If your loved one dies at home, you will have as much time as you want to be with them after they die. You will need to contact the GP and the funeral director and tell them that the person has died.

The funeral director will take the person's body to the funeral home if you wish. You can arrange with the funeral directors to visit your loved one if you feel you want to see them again before the funeral.

Caring for the body

Some cultures carry out specific rituals and practices after someone's death. It's important for you to do whatever you feel is right.

Some families like to wash and dry the body carefully and sometimes wash and tidy their loved one's hair. They might also close the eyes and support the mouth to stay closed. Some people decide not to prepare the body in any particular way. Or, if you prefer, you can ask a funeral director to wash and dress your loved one's body.

You can keep the body at home until the funeral if you like. In some situations, a funeral director might recommend they embalm the body if it is going to be at home for longer than a few days. For example, a body might decompose more quickly if they had certain infections or particular medicines before they died or if it is warmer weather.

Embalming the body involves putting embalming fluid into the bloodstream to delay decay. You could contact a funeral director if you wanted to know more about embalming.

What you need to do soon after someone dies

Some things need to be done in the first days after your loved one has died. Knowing what to expect and what to do can help you cope. Ask other friends and relatives if you don't want to do them by yourself.

Collecting the medical certificate of cause of death

The next of kin must collect a medical certificate with the cause of death written on it. This is called a medical certificate of cause of death. The GP will give you this form if your relative or friend died at home. Or you might need to collect it from the surgery the next day.

If your loved one died in hospital or another healthcare setting, you need to make an appointment with the Patient Affairs Officer or a nurse from the ward or hospice. You will be given these contact details when your friend or relative dies.

You need the medical certificate of cause of death to register the death of your loved one.

Collecting personal belongings

You will probably need to collect your loved one's personal belongings if they died in a hospital or hospice. Most people find this hard. But the ward staff will be supportive and very aware of your feelings.

Your loved one may have had valuables such as a watch, jewellery or money in the ward safe. Just check that the nurses have remembered to include these in their belongings. If there are certain items you want to remain with your loved one, such as a wedding ring, make sure you let the staff know.

Registering the death

It is a legal requirement to register all deaths within 5 days in England and Wales and within 8 days in Scotland. You must register the death before you can complete the funeral arrangements.

The hospital or GP will let you know where the nearest registry office is. Contact the registry office before you go, as you might need to make an appointment. You can register the death in any registry office. But if you register it in the district where the person died, they will give you the documents you need on the day. You don't have to pay for registration.

Registering a death is usually straightforward. But it can be very upsetting for some people, so you might want to take someone to support you.

In special situations, such as a post-mortem, registering a death might involve more paperwork and could take a bit longer.

A relative is the best person to register the death. Someone else can do it if a relative can't, but you will need to discuss this with the registry office.

What you need to take

Take the following to the registry office:

the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death
the date and place of death
the person who died’s last (usual) address
their full names and surnames (and the maiden surname where appropriate)
their date and place of birth (town and county if born in the United Kingdom, and country if born abroad)
their occupation and the name and occupation of their spouse, and of previous spouses (if appropriate)
whether they were receiving a pension or allowance from public funds
if they were married, the date of birth of the surviving widow or widower

After registering the death

The Registrar at the registry office will give you:

a Certificate of Registration of Death - this is for social security purposes only. Read the information on the back of the certificate. If any of it applies to you, fill in the certificate. Send it or hand it in at your social security office
a Certificate for Burial or Cremation - you will need to give this certificate to the funeral director so they can complete the funeral arrangement. This certificate is free of charge. But you will need to pay a small fee for a certified copy. You will need this copy for any bank or insurance issues or if you want to bury your friend or relative abroad
a reference number which you can use for Tell Us Once service. It is a free service that will inform the main government services of the person’s death

Arranging the funeral

Arranging your loved one’s funeral can be overwhelming. There are many things to think about. Discuss it with other family and friends if it helps.

Choosing a funeral director

A good funeral director can make this difficult time easier for you.

Friends or relatives who have had to arrange a funeral might be able to suggest good funeral director services. Hospitals and hospices can also make recommendations. Or you can contact the National Association of Funeral Directors. They can give you details of local funeral directors who are part of this professional association.

Funeral directors will respect your wishes and they will want to make this time as easy as possible for you.

You need to give the funeral director the certificate of burial or cremation that the Registrar gave you. The funeral director will contact the hospital or hospice and arrange for your loved one to go to the funeral director’s chapel of rest.

Making funeral arrangements yourself

It is possible to arrange a funeral yourself, without a funeral director. You can contact your local council's Cemeteries and Crematorium Department to arrange a funeral yourself.

The person's wishes

Your loved one might have left specific instructions about their funeral. They might have discussed it with you before they died or left directions in their will. You can then include these instructions in their plans.

But if they haven't left instructions, making decisions can be difficult. You could discuss things with other relatives and try to think about what your loved one might have wanted.

In some religions or cultures, people have to organise the funeral as quickly as possible. But if this is not the case for you, you don't have to organise things in a hurry. Take all the time you need to make the funeral exactly how you want it to be.

Having flowers or donations

Many families now choose to ask friends and relatives to donate instead of giving flowers.

The donations usually go to a charity or the hospital or ward where their loved one died. They may choose to buy a piece of equipment for the ward in memory of the person. The piece of equipment you buy will usually have a plaque saying, 'in memory 'of' and your loved one's name.

Choosing the type of funeral

You can have the funeral at your local church, cemetery or crematorium.

If you have the funeral at the cemetery or crematorium, you can have:

a minister of religion lead the service
a humanist ceremony
organise your own order of service

Your funeral director will be able to put you in touch with whoever you need.

Burial

You will also need to decide whether you want your loved one buried in a separate or shared grave.

A shared grave means they will have their own coffin, but they will share the grave with several other people. This is much cheaper.

With a shared grave, you may not be able to put up a headstone in memory of your loved one. But you may be able to place a small stone on the grave to acknowledge the person buried there.

Cremation

After a cremation, you can choose what you do with the ashes. They can be buried or scattered in a cemetery or somewhere meaningful to you and the person who died.

Some people choose to keep the ashes in their homes or scatter them abroad. Speak to your funeral director for advice because you might need to get permission in some situations.

The funeral director can also advise you if you want to choose a memorial.

Having a public or private funeral

You might need to decide whether your relative would want to have a public or private funeral. This means whether the funeral will be open to anyone who knew the person, or whether you prefer to have only close family and friends present.

Do what you feel is right for you or what your loved one asked for.

Costs of a funeral

It is helpful to plan for the funeral costs in advance, as often the undertaker needs payment before the service goes ahead.

The costs of different types of funerals could help decide what you can have. For example, a cremation is usually less expensive than a burial. Prices of coffins vary greatly too.

It might be upsetting if you can't afford to have the funeral exactly as you would like. Focus on the things you can do, such as choosing a special song to play or a poem to read at the funeral. These are the things that you will remember most afterwards.

Your funeral director will be able to help you make some of the decisions about how you want the funeral to be.

Funeral Expenses Payment

You might be able to get help with paying for the funeral if you are the next of kin and are getting certain benefits such as Income Support, Pension Credit or Universal Credit.

This payment helps towards the cost of the funeral. But even if you plan a very simple funeral, it probably won't cover all the costs.

You can get information about this funeral payment on the Government website or the Citizens Advice website.

Go to the Citizens Advice website for advice on England, Scotland, Northern Ireland or Wales. The advice can vary depending on where to live. Search under ‘funeral expenses payment’.

Bereavement Support Payment (BSP)

Bereavement Support Payment is a payment that you can apply for if your husband, wife or civil partner has died. It is not means tested. So, your income or whether or not you're working doesn't affect it.

Bereavement Support Payment has replaced Bereavement Allowance (previously Widow's Pension), Bereavement Payment, and Widowed Parent's Allowance.

BSP is based on your partner's National Insurance contributions. You can find more information on Bereavement Support Payment on the Government website.

Unusual situations affecting funerals

Funerals may not be straightforward if there is a need for a coroner's inquiry, a hospital postmortem or a burial abroad. This might mean that the funeral is delayed.

Coroner's inquiry

A coroner is an official who is responsible for investigating deaths of unknown cause or sudden, violent or suspicious deaths. In Scotland, the official is called Procurator Fiscal.

A coroner's inquiry is not usually necessary when someone has died after having cancer. But if the doctor can't issue a death certificate because they are unsure of the exact cause of death, they must contact the coroner.

The coroner will arrange to do a post-mortem to help decide the cause of death. They 'don't need any consent from the next of kin to do this. But if you want, you can choose a doctor to be there on your behalf.

A hospital post-mortem

A hospital post-mortem happens when your relative's doctor asks for permission to do a post-mortem. They hope it will help them understand the cause of death and improve how they treat others with a similar illness in the future.

It is uncommon for a doctor to ask for this, especially when someone dies of cancer. But if they do, they will discuss the procedure in depth with you.

A doctor can only arrange to do a hospital post-mortem with the next of kin's written consent. Some people find that a post-mortem helps them better understand why the death happened. But don't feel under any pressure to say yes to this procedure.

Burial abroad

To move the body of a loved one from England or Wales to Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands, as well as elsewhere abroad, you will need to let the coroner know. This is the coroner of the area where your loved one’s body is lying. You need to complete a Removal Notice.

To move the body of someone from Scotland to elsewhere, you may not need to contact the Procurator Fiscal.

Your funeral director will usually deal with this on your behalf. You can read more information on how to do a burial abroad on the Dignity with Distinction website.

Donating body parts for transplant or research

Because your loved one had cancer, they might not be able to donate their organs for transplant, even if they had an organ donor card. This is because the illness might have damaged their internal organs.

But it may be possible for people with certain types of cancers to donate after three years of treatment.

Some people might be able to donate parts of their eyes (cornea) and other tissues. If this is possible, you need to talk about it before the person dies, as the tissues need to be removed very soon after death.

The law on organ donation is different in the 4 countries of the UK.

Donating a body

Anyone can donate their body for research. But there are various reasons why medical schools may not accept a body. For example, certain medical conditions or a post-mortem. The medical school you contact can give you more information on this.

You can also read more information on donating a body on the Human Tissue Authority website.

Wills

A will is a legal document or a letter signed by the person who died. It gives instructions on what they want to do with any money and assets they leave behind.

Hopefully, you were able to discuss this with your relative before they died. But if not, then you will need to find this document. You will most likely need to seek the advice of a lawyer about the will.

If there is no will, you should talk to a lawyer to find out what to do next.

You can find more information and details on how to find a lawyer on the Law Society website.

Letting people know about the person's death

Telling people about a death can be difficult and also emotionally tiring.

But it is important that you tell people who knew your loved one personally or did business with them. You can ask a friend or another family member to help you if you don’t feel like doing this yourself.

With so much on your mind, it is easy to miss someone. This list might help remind you of all those you might need to tell.

family and friends
neighbours
work colleagues and employer
sporting clubs – cancel any memberships at gyms or sports clubs
place of worship
family doctor
bank
credit card companies
Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) – you must return the dead person’s driving licence
local library if they were a member – you might need to return books, DVDs etc
mortgage and insurance companies

Cancel any social services such as meals on wheels, transport assistance or home help.

Tell Us Once

Tell Us Once is a service that lets you report a death to most government organisations in one go.

When you register the death, the registrar will give you a Tell Us Once reference number. You can pass this reference number on to the Tell Us Once service. They will then tell all the government services, such as HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and the passport office.

You can read more about the Tell Us Once service on the Government website.