First: the medical certificate (you mostly wait)
- Since September 2024, every death in England and Wales is reviewed by a medical examiner (or a coroner). The medical certificate of cause of death (MCCD) is then sent directly to the register office — you don’t carry paper anymore. The GP surgery, hospital or medical examiner’s office will tell you when it’s gone through.
- Coroner involved? Registration pauses until they’ve finished — that’s a normal part of the system, not a sign anything’s wrong. The coroner’s office can issue interim certificates so the funeral and practical matters can proceed.
- The funeral itself doesn’t have to wait for everything — funeral directors handle the sequencing daily and will guide you.
Take this pressure off
The 5-day clock starts when the register office receives the certificate — not from the death itself. You cannot register before it arrives, so the waiting days are not you being slow. Nothing else on this page is urgent in week one except the registration appointment.
Register within 5 days — one appointment, three things
- Book the register office for the district where the person died (find it via your council). Usually a relative registers; someone present at the death or the person arranging the funeral can too.
- Bring what you can — their full name (and previous names), date and place of birth, last address, occupation, and if handy their birth certificate, NHS number and surviving spouse or civil partner’s details. Missing documents rarely stop a registration.
- Leave with three things: the green form (Certificate for Burial or Cremation — your funeral director needs it), certified death certificates at £12.50 each, and your Tell Us Once reference.
Buy 5–10 certificates at the appointment
Banks, insurers, pension providers and
probate each want certified copies, often simultaneously. They’re £12.50 each from the registrar (and the same from the
General Register Office later) — buying a small stack now saves weeks of waiting later.
Tell Us Once — the one call that does the rest
- Free, run by the government, used with the reference the registrar gives you — online or by phone, within 28 days.
- One session notifies: DWP (State Pension and benefits), HMRC, DVLA (licence and vehicle), HM Passport Office, and the council (Council Tax, Blue Badge, electoral roll, council housing).
- Still to do separately: banks and building societies, private and workplace pensions, insurers, utilities and subscriptions. Do these in your own time — a certificate copy and a short call each.
- The mail of the person who died can be redirected — and a Royal Mail Special Circumstances redirection handles a deceased person’s post via a paper form.
The money help that follows
- Bereavement Support Payment — up to £9,800 if your husband, wife or civil partner died before State Pension age. Claim within 3 months of the death for the full amount (21 months at the absolute latest).
- Funeral Expenses Payment — burial or cremation fees plus up to £1,000 if you’re on a qualifying benefit; claim within 6 months of the funeral. Scotland has the Funeral Support Payment instead.
- Pension Credit and other benefits may newly apply to a surviving partner whose household income has changed — worth a full check once the first weeks have passed.
- Probate is only needed for larger estates or property — and there’s help with the fee on a low income. It can wait.
Do this now
Book the registration appointment when the certificate is confirmed, and at it: take the green form, buy 5–10 certificates, and ask for the Tell Us Once reference — then use it within 28 days.
Losing a partner? Diary the 3-month Bereavement Support Payment window — it’s the one money deadline that quietly shrinks the award if missed.
Scotland & Northern Ireland
Scotland: register within 8 days, at any registration office, with its own certificate fees (NRS). Northern Ireland: register within 5 days via GRONI — Tell Us Once isn’t available in NI, so organisations are notified individually.
And you
There is no deadline on grief. Cruse Bereavement Support — 0808 808 1677 — is free, and Samaritans — 116 123 — answer at any hour. The paperwork will keep.