Seaham mum and daughter set up one-stop service to handle accounts for grieving families

The online account closure service Settld will avoid the need to individually contact banks, insurers, mobile and broadband providers, TV subscription services and other service providers when a loved one dies.

People can upload the necessary documents, which will then automatically notify service providers of a death and of the need to close or transfer accounts.

On average, individuals have up to 20 companies to close accounts when someone dies.

The Tell Us Once service, introduced in 2011, enables families to report a death to multiple Government and public organisations at once, while a Death Notification Service also helps people notify financial services companies and is planning to expand to include other providers.

But there is no equivalent for private companies.

Settld was founded by mum and daughter Julie and Vicky Wilson after the loss of Vicky’s grandmother 18 months ago.

Julie, from Seaham, said: “More than 110,000 people across the UK have died over the last year from Covid-19 alone.

"More than 600,000 people die in an average year.

“Each of those people leaves behind loved ones who need to deal, through their grief, with the paperwork and admin that goes with death.

“Settld will help settle the affairs of those close to you, and our account closure service will ease some of the unnecessary pain and anxiety faced by those who’ve recently lost a loved one.”

The pair are campaigning for an industry-wide bereavement standard, requiring service providers to treat grieving families more compassionately and speed up and simplify end-of-life administration.

More than 90,000 people have signed a Change.org petition for the Government to introduce it, while an early day motion has received cross-party support from 50 MPs.

During a Commons adjournment debate on the standard last week, Labour MP for Easington Grahame Morris said: “The Tell Us Once service is working well, ensuring that bereaved people do not have to go through the trauma of telling every single Government department that they have lost a loved one, but we need exactly the same in the private sector to cover banks, utilities, insurance companies and more.”

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