Rutland County Councils Tell us Once Service up and Running
In partnership with other councils in the area Rutland has recently set up a new service that makes it easier to inform central and local government about the death of a person in the county.
The “Tell us once” service means residents will only have to provide details about the person who has died once instead of having to repeat the same information to a number of different agencies.
Rutland County Council, Leicester City, Leicestershire and Leicestershire’s district and borough councils have teamed up with the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) to launch the service, which will be extended to include births in the Spring.
People who have to register a death often also have to inform a wide range of other government services. This can sometimes be time consuming and difficult. ’Tell Us Once’ means people can choose, without charge, to have the registrar pass information on to other service providers such as the Driver Vehicle Licensing Agency, library service, and council housing services.
Leader of Rutland County Council, Councillor Roger Begy said: “It is important to us to provide the best possible services to our residents. The ‘Tell Us Once’ system will be really beneficial to our community as they will only need to make one visit to the registrar rather than having to contact a variety of agencies. I am really pleased that we are able to offer this service.”
The service was launched at the end of November and seems to be working well. When making an appointment to register a death residents are now asked if they would like to use the ‘Tell us once’ service.
The information given to the registrar will be used mainly to update records, end services, benefits and credits as appropriate and to resolve any outstanding issues. Some personal information will be required about the deceased and next of kin.
Other service providers who can be informed through ‘Tell Us Once’ are the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, library service and the local housing service.
