One stop contact needed for bereaved says Kildare councillor

A single portal should be created to help support families and people suffering bereavement, according to Kildare county councillor, Angela Feeney.

The Maynooth based councillor has backed the Labour Party call for the Minister for Social Protection, Heather Humphreys, to create a single portal to support family members when they have to engage with social protection and other public services after a loved one passes away.

Cllr Feeney said this is to avoid the necessity of having to notify multiple sections of her Department and other government agencies after a bereavement.

She said the UK has a ‘Tell Us Once’ service for notifying a death to government bodies.  Cllr Feeney said:

Cllr Feeney said: “When a loved one passes away, their family and next of kin suddenly find they have to engage with a range of public services. This can be an extremely difficult time for people and the State could help by streamlining the process for notifying public bodies of a death with a single point of contact.

“In the Department of Social Protection alone, there can be a range of sections that have to be individually notified depending on payments that may be received, and also to register the death with the General Register Office.

Cllr Feeney said that having to engage in so many notifications of a death can cause unnecessary distress during what is a very trying time.

There should be a bereavement portal or ‘one stop shop’ that allow the next of kin to quickly notify all the particular sections relevant to the deceased, and it should also take into account other public services like the Department of Health, Revenue, or local authorities."There are many sections of Social Protection and the Department of Health that people have to go through to put in order the affairs of persons who have received payments, in terms of notifications and all the other matters relevant to the State that have to be addressed after a death.” 

Cllr Feeney said the Labour party has asked the Minister to sit down with her officials with a view to creating a one-stop shop for bereaved persons in order that when their loved ones pass away, there is as seamless a process as possible. “The UK has managed to do this, and it’s time we put a similar process in place.”

Concluding she said:“I do acknowledge the sympathetic and empathetic manner in which social welfare officials deal with people in that situation.  We do welcome that Minister Humphreys agreed to take on board the idea, and she confirmed that the General Registry Office plans a consultation on registration of deaths in order to make the process easier for people. I would now ask that a much broader process be put in place.”