§ Mr. Jon Owen JonesTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) what are the procedures for notifying his Department's agencies of the death of a claimant with particular reference to the Pensions Agency; [6267]
(2) what safeguards exist to ensure Department of Social Security agencies do not continue to pay benefits or pensions after a claimant has died, when the payments are made to a bank account. [6266]
§ Mr. Andrew MitchellWhen a death is registered with the registrar, the informant will be given a form BD8 along with the original death certificate. This is a free certificate to be used as a verified notification of death to the Department of Social Security.
This form asks several questions about the deceased and if benefit was in payment. It also asks the person completing it to send it in to the local social security office. The BD8 has recently been re-designed and now asks for it to be sent into the Department regardless of whether or not benefit was in payment to the deceased.
The registrars pass details of the deaths reported to them to the Office of Population Censuses and Survey. The details are then transferred to a tape which is sent to the Contributions Agency. The details from this tape are then passed to the departmental central index which then broadcasts the dates of death to every benefit computer 167W system. The broadcast automatically suspends payment of benefit, regardless of the method used to pay the customer.
The notes in the retirement pension order books and the leaflet BR2215 which is given to claimants who receive their RP by automated credit transfer, contain a section on what to do if the claimant has died. The advice is simply to advise the agency of the details of death and return the order book where appropriate.