Sorting out your finances
6 mins read
This advice applies across the UK.
The practical steps you might need to take following the death of a child, including offices you need to contact.
In this article
What do I need to sort out?
Using the Tell Us Once service should ensure that any benefits paid in your child’s name, such as Disability Living Allowance (DLA), will stop. Tell Us Once is not available in Northern Ireland. For information on who you need to contact in Northern Ireland visit nidirect.
As a parent, you may be receiving a number of other benefits in your name in respect of your child. These may either reduce or stop altogether as a result of your child passing away. Unfortunately, neither the Tell Us Once service nor the form the registrar provides will result in a notification to those offices that are paying benefit to you, rather than to your child.
As a result, you will need to contact each of the offices paying you these benefits to tell them about your bereavement. We’ve outlined who you need to contact below, and any time scales you need to be aware of.
Who you need to tell
Child Benefit and Guardian’s Allowance
These payments can continue for the first eight weeks after your child dies.
You can contact the relevant offices on-line if you have a government gateway account or by phone.
- Child Benefit: 0300 200 3100
- Guardian’s Allowance office: 0300 200 3101.
Carer’s Allowance
If you or your partner were getting Carer’s Allowance for your child, this can continue for the first eight weeks before stopping. Carer’s Allowance will only run on for eight weeks if you were already eligible for it when your child died. If it had already stopped (for example, because your child was in residential care) this won’t apply.
Use the Tell Us Once Service to notify the Carer’s Allowance Unit of your child’s death. Call 0800 587 0912 in Northern Ireland.
Disability Living Allowance (DLA) and Child Disability Payment
DLA stops immediately upon the death of a child. If you need to contact the DLA Unit yourself, (for example the Tell Us Once service is unavailable in your area or you don’t wish to use paperwork provided by your registrar), call 0800 121 4600 (0800 587 0912 in Northern Ireland). You can contact Social Security Scotland, who pay Child Disability Payment by calling on 0800 182 2222.
In Scotland, Child Disability Payment has replaced DLA. Child Disability Payment also stops immediately on the death of a child. However, Social Security Scotland will pay a lump sum payment covering the last 8 weeks before their death. This effectively doubles the amount of Child Disability Payment paid during that 8 week period.
Motability
If you were using your DLA or Child Disability Payment mobility component to lease or buy a car from the Motability Scheme, you will also need to contact them. You will have the option of either buying the car outright or returning it. You can call them on 0300 456 4566. If you are getting a road tax exemption, then call 0300 790 6802.
Housing Benefit
Following the death of a child, your Housing Benefit will need to be re-assessed. Depending on your circumstances, you may start to get less help after eight weeks.
Contact the local authority office paying you this benefit straight away to avoid being overpaid benefit, which you may have to pay back.
If the death of your child leads to you being treated as needing fewer bedrooms under the size criteria rules, any cut in your Housing Benefit resulting from you being treated as having a ‘spare’ bedroom should be delayed for 12 months. However, this only applies so long as you remain in the same property.
Council Tax and rates
The loss of your child may affect the amount of help with your Council Tax or rates. This will depend on your own particular circumstances.
Contact the local council office paying you this benefit straight away to avoid being overpaid benefit, which you may have to pay back.
Universal Credit
If you are receiving Universal Credit, then the death of a child will impact on the amount that you receive.
However, you continue to receive payments for your child, including any childcare costs, alongside any carer element for looking after them, for a temporary period. This period is the remainder of the monthly assessment period in which they passed away and the following two months.
Depending on your circumstances, the loss of your child may mean that you start to be expected to look for work, as part of continuing to claim Universal Credit. Seek further advice if this applies to you.
Unless you use the Tell Us Once service, you will also have to notify any other government departments providing services to your child. For example, this might include social services if you receive a package of support.
Child Trust Fund money
If your child was born between 1 September 2002 and 2 January 2011, the government should have opened a Child Trust Fund account for them.
When a child with a Child Trust Fund account dies, the money in the account will pass to the person entitled to inherit the child’s estate. This is usually the parent(s). No notification is required.
What happens to any equipment my child uses?
You may not be told when any equipment that has been part of your child’s life will be taken away, for example, beds or equipment the NHS has supplied.
Parents have spoken about how distressing it can be when faced with an unexpected phone call or visit. Many have said they felt they were not given enough time or respect to grieve before this happens.
To help in this situation, contact any equipment suppliers and explain your situation. Try and negotiate a date or time that is best for you. Or you can ask someone else to do this on your behalf, so you can be prepared as far as possible.
More information about practical issues following a death
Bereavement Advice Centre
Supports and advises people in the UK on the practical matters they need to do after a death. It can help with registering a death, arranging a funeral, legal procedures, money and tax issues.
Contact them on 0800 634 94 94 or visit www.bereavementadvice.org
Or in England and Wales visit www.gov.uk
In Scotland, the Scottish Government produce What to do after a death in Scotland. The last update was in 2016. Find sources of bereavement support in Scotland at mygov.scot.
In Northern Ireland, see www.nidirect.gov.uk
