If you wanted to find out if someone had died...

[LolaLouise]

And you had no way to contact immediate family as they are all blocked on phone/social media for legitimate reasons, where would you start...?

My ex husband has been paying CMS via deduction from his benefit for a long time, there is no way this man has gotten employment, however cms payments have stopped for the past 3 months.

Contacting his family is a no go due to the abusive nature of the relationship and their behaviour during the marriage. I dont know any of his friends etc as its been 10 years since the marriage ended. He has been n/c with our children the entire time through his own choices too. I have no current or even previous addresses for him. I can see his social media but what is public hasnt been changed since around 2017.

I cant think of any other reason why cms payments would have stopped, they cant update me all they can say is they havent received a payment for 3 months to pass on to me. If he had a job which is why the nov stopped (unlikely) then the recalculation based of a wage would have happened by now too, and theres nothing there.

Where would you start with this information?

I guess it depends where OP lives but in Scotland it's updated within 7 days.

unfortunately im not in scotland

Scotland's People can also take up to 6 months to update, it's not always super quick.

I will call back on Monday, im starting a run of night shifts tonight, and my children are home from school now, if i havent heard from them by then ill call back and ask to escalate to complaints. Thanks

I'm quite rural, so there's only one crematorium for a very large area. Are you somewhere like that, that you could call all the crematorium options and see if they've had a cremation of someone with his name?

Good plan.

Also consider dropping your MP an email and ask them to chase CMS. If it's still as it was when I worked there (and I've not heard anything to the contrary) there is a team who deal with MP complaints so things tend to get actioned quickly.

There really is no excuse for them not contacting DWP right away.

That hasn't been my experience at all and I've used it a few times over the years, including last week for a death that occurred the week before.

It's something I've experience several times in 10+ years of genealogy.

Sometimes an update is very quick. Other times it can take months. It all depends on timings.

Not the point of the thread but in Ireland we have a website called rip.ie where all deaths get posted with funeral arrangements and a link to the church (if applicable) to watch the funeral live. There's also a section for condolences. Someone entrepreneurial should set one up in England/scotland/wales etc.

If you know the area he lives in I'd ring all the local undertakers. They should be able to tell you if they have dealt with his cremation recently?

If you know the area that he lives in and he is a drinker could you ring around any of his possible locals and ask for him. The person answer might replied oh sure he is in prison/deceased etc. Obviously that will not work if it is a large city etc.

I had something similar - no one else to contact but needed to know for family reasons.

I emailed the local coroners office (they cover large regions usually - so if you know the rough area, then google will tell you).

I gave as much detail as possible via email and my reasons why and just asked if they had registered his death.

Very promptly emailed me back and said - nope, no record of a death.

Very simple and completely free.

Turns out he was very much alive still and crawled out of the woodwork shortly after.