Tell Us Once After a Death Abroad — How It Works With a French Death Certificate

The Process Is Different for Overseas Deaths

The Tell Us Once service lets you notify multiple UK government agencies of a death in a single step — HMRC, DWP, the Passport Office, DVLA, and your local council all receive the notification through one reference number. For a death that happened in the UK, the registrar at the register office gives you the reference number at the time of registration.

For a death that happened abroad, the process has an extra step. If the deceased was a UK resident, you cannot simply log into the Tell Us Once online portal with a French death certificate. The system does not accept foreign documents directly. Instead, you need to take the French acte de décès and a certified English translation (or the extrait plurilingue with its built-in English headings) to a local register office in England, Wales, or Scotland. The registrar verifies the foreign document and issues a unique Tell Us Once reference number, which you then use in the online portal or by phone.

Which Agencies Get Notified

Tell Us Once contacts the following automatically:

• HMRC — to update tax records and stop any tax credits
• DWP — to stop state pension, benefits, and any carer's allowance
• HM Passport Office — to cancel the passport
• DVLA — to update driving licence records
• Local council — to update council tax and the electoral register

These notifications replace what would otherwise be five or six separate phone calls and letters. The service saves genuine time, especially when you are also managing French-side administration simultaneously.

What Tell Us Once Does Not Cover

The service only contacts government agencies. You must separately notify:

• Private banks and building societies — each one individually, with a certified copy of the death certificate
• Private pension providers — occupational and personal pensions are not covered
• Life insurance companies — they will need the death certificate and, typically, the cause of death
• Utility companies — gas, water, electricity, broadband
• TV Licensing
• Phone and mobile contracts

If the deceased also held French accounts, pensions, or subscriptions, those are entirely separate from Tell Us Once. French banks freeze sole accounts once formally notified of death, while joint accounts usually remain active under French banking conventions. For a sole account, the €5,000 funeral expense release may be available until succession procedures are complete.

Getting the Translation Right

The register office needs either the extrait plurilingue (the multilingual extract from the French mairie, which includes English headings and is accepted without further translation) or the standard acte de décès with a certified English translation.

For the translation, the UK system is more flexible than the French one. A qualified professional translator's certification is accepted. If you use a translator who is not a member of a recognised professional body, they complete Form PA19 — a formal declaration of linguistic competence — and the translation is treated as equivalent. You do not need a French court-sworn translator (traducteur assermenté) for UK-bound documents.

Northern Ireland

Tell Us Once is not available in Northern Ireland. If the deceased was a Northern Ireland resident, you need to contact each government agency separately — HMRC, DWP, the Passport Office, and DVLA. Your local council in Northern Ireland has its own notification process for rates and electoral registration.

Timing

There is no hard deadline for using Tell Us Once, but doing it early prevents overpayments from pensions and benefits — and HMRC's records update faster, which simplifies any inheritance tax paperwork. Most families use the service within the first two weeks of returning to the UK.

Our complete guide includes the full list of UK notifications — both government and private — with contact details and what each organisation needs.