The hospital will ask you to attend a small meeting (with other relations if you require). They will explain the situation and give you a piece of paper certifying that your wife's body can be released. You then give this to the undertaker of your choice who will then have the authority to collect the body. A typical funeral does cost around £4,000 but you can cut out a lot of things, such as transport to the funeral, coffins, flowers etc.. There are grants for these things which cover some areas of funeral costs, typical about half the cost, but they are means tested. Your funeral directors can advise on this.ClaretAL wrote: ↑Wed Jan 20, 2021 7:49 pmThank you all for the above but things have moved on some since. It is with a heavy heart that I announce the passing of Mrs ClaretAl (Lisa Haworth). Lisa has had major surgery spanning the last 5 years, culminating in end of life care over the last 3 days. Lisa was strong, thoughtful and driven as always, and Lisa dictated the last 3 days on her terms and waited until all her final wishes were complete, she had the brightest smile on her face throughout. She passed peacefully without pain and the most relaxed and comfortable I have seen her in years.
I have never had to deal with hr process following a bereavement before and finding it difficult, but presume as she passed lat night someone from the hospital will be in touch with what to do next? I am not loaded by any means of the imagination so is it all full balance up front ir do some take part payment for funeral services? and recommendations of undertakers are welcome
A decent undertaker will guide you through the system. I found undertaker costs to be pretty consistent in my locality so I chose a local firm rather then, say, the Co-op (the Co-op were good though for my brother so that's no criticism of them).
You will need to get a death certificate and that's done by visiting your nearest registrar of births, deaths and marriages. This then allows you to deal with banks and other officialdom. You may find it useful to have more then one death certificate if you have to deal with a lot of companies (say your wife had a lot of stocks and shares). At the registrar you can also do a kind of 'one stop' measure which will deal with state issues like pensions, Council Tax etc. so you don't have to contact them all individually. I found that very helpful.
Then there's your wife's estate. If there's a will that will make it easier but if not I don't think it is such an issue for a spouse. There should be plenty of information online, also regarding inheritance tax.
Going through your wife's things is the worst aspect of all this. If your children or other relations can help that may be useful but it will obviously stir up a lot of emotions but hopefully good memories.
Just take your time with all this. There's no rush and everyone is usually understanding.