Let us know about a member's death

How to notify us

We understand how difficult it can be to deal with paperwork at an emotional time. That’s why we’ve made it easy to let us know if a Scheme member has passed away.

Please use our bereavement form, available online:

Report a member’s death

Tell us a member has died

Try and get in touch with us as soon as possible so we can start looking at what benefits might be payable. The team will normally respond within three working days of you contacting them. However, it will take longer to let you know if any further benefits are payable and the team may request additional information from you.

If you need to let us know that a member has died, please either contact Capita using the details on the Contact Us page or, if you’d prefer to complete the process online, fill in the online Bereavement Form and a member of the team will be in touch via email. 

The first thing you’ll need to do is get a medical certificate. If the death was expected the GP will issue a medical certificate stating the cause of death. If the death was unexpected, the GP may need to report the death to the coroner; the coroner will give you the documents you need, or they’ll send them direct to the registrar.

You’ll need to send the original death certificate to Capita.

We send you an information form and you return it

We’ll issue an information form five working days from receiving the death certificate.

There’s a range of potential benefits that can be paid which is why we’ll ask you to complete an information form and also ask you to provide evidence of your eligibility, such as, a colour image of your driver’s licence or passport to prove your identity.

We confirm what benefits might be paid

You’ll receive confirmation of any benefits payable within five working days of us receiving your information form. There may be a need to request further information from you at this stage if we don’t have everything we need.

Once Capita have received the death certificate, our completed information form and evidence of your eligibility we'll write out to confirm the benefits payable to you.

We pay you any benefits you are eligible for

Any lump sums or ongoing dependent pensions will be paid as soon as possible once eligibility checks are completed.

Once all the checks are completed, we'll calculate and pay final benefits to eligible dependents.

Other things you might want to consider

There are other organisations you may need to contact to let them know about the member’s death.

You may want to:

Contact the deceased's bank, mortgage lender or landlord, insurance companies, other pension providers and utility companies as soon as possible
Redirect any post using a special circumstances form from Royal Mail so you can watch out for anything you might’ve missed
Useful information can be found here: What to do after someone dies: Tell Us Once - GOV.UK