My wife's mum is in a hospice, and it's her final days..

[LoyalMember]

My MiL is at the very end now, and it'll only be a few days, I'm sure. We're in Glasgow, so where and how do I register her death? I'll have to take the reins a bit and do a few things to help, and this is one of them. A colleague, whose dad died recently, said in Scotland, when a Death Certificate is issued, it's automatically registered. Then all we do is take the Certificate to the Funeral Director.

The Glasgow City Council website's quite unclear about it, so can anybody advise me, please?

Thanks...

The hospice will guide you through what to do once the time comes. Try not to worry about it right now and just support your wife in the moment.

Thank you so much.

It's been a few years since my Mum died, but I think you have about a week to register the death with the registrar. From memory I think you need the medical certificate from the attending Dr, and if you have them a birth certificate and any marriage or divorce certificates. There is also a service that will inform all necessary organisations of a death so you don't have to ring all of them. I think the registrar will have the information about this.

Also, if my memory serves me I seem to remember needing details of any state benefits/pensions, but that might have been for a different appointment. It can be quite draining and feels very overwhelming at times. I found everyone to be kind and keen to be helpful when I didn't know.

I'm sorry to hear what you're family are going through. It might be helpful for you to know that you usually have to make an appointment to register a death now; not knowing this might add an unexpected delay when you go to do it and don't have an appointment.

I'm in Scotland and have had a recent bereavement. It's really tough, for both your partner and you.

The old Martha street is no more, it's all done online and you don't need to wait for the death certificate to approach funeral directors to get the ball rolling. Once you have the certificate, you can the do the tell us once service on the mygov.scot website, this will inform places such as dwp, tv licence, hmrc, dvla etc without you having to do that individually.

Thanks. Is it true in Scotland that when the Doctor issues the Death Certificate it's automatically registered? Two recently bereaved workmates told me that this morning. Do you know if that's right?

Yes the dr will do that online. The registry office will then call to ask some info, and the death certificate will go direct to the funeral directors but for you to get paper copies you'll need to order them. It's cheaper to order more together at the start, than go back later to get duplicates. You always need more than you think, especially if you have banks etc to deal with. The registry office should also email you a reference for the tell us once service.