End of life charity working across the East calls to make death-related admin easier on Grief Awareness Day

It's Grief Awareness Day and a UK charity working across the East is leading calls to make death related administration (so called ‘sadmin’ ) easier for family and friends when a loved one passes away.

New research from Marie Curie shows that 1 in 4 people have taken on the responsibility of ‘sadmin’ when a loved one dies – with 80% of us describing dealing with the administrative aspects of bereavement as challenging.

Marie Curie in the East of England covers Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. They provide a range of services and support including Hospice care at home, a Companion Volunteer service and compassionate workplaces training.

The charity is calling on banks, telecoms companies and energy providers to work with the charity and "Make ‘sadmin’ Simple" for dying people and those going through grief.

People can get involved and support by signing the petition, which has already generated thousands of signatures.

Sarah Middlemas is a campaigner at Marie Curie East:

"If you're either approaching the end of your life, or your loved one has died, things like closing energy and bank accounts, or calling up to end your telecoms contract are jobs that can be incredibly upsetting."

"There are lots of things that companies can do such as training staff to deal with bereaved customers more sensitively, or changing their practices to allow people to submit death certificates online or via post."

"This isn't something that people talk about. Our Make Sadmin Simple campaign is calling on companies to make these tasks easier."

"We're asking people to sign our petition and help us make this an issue that companies can't ignore any longer."

The petition, which has already had thousands of signatures, has had some specific responses from the people of Essex:

From Alicja in Harlow:

"Organisations really lacked empathy and humanity, even though I was heartbroken. Many of them referred to my loved one as 'the deceased' rather than by name, and one organisation sent me an email which said:' THANK YOU FOR INFORMING US OF THE DEATH OF' then just a reference number. It dragged on for months, and every interaction left me even more broken. There was no kindness there at all."

And from Pauline in Basildon,

"After my husband passed away I had to contact so many different organisations - banks, building societies, insurance companies, the companies he held shares with, telling the story over and over again. I found that some organisations were easier to deal with than others, but the last thing you want when recently bereaved is to plough through mountains of paperwork. I would certainly have been able to cope much better if I only had to report my husband's death once."

If you or someone you know is currently trying to work through "sadmin", Sarah advises using the Government's "Tell Us Once" service.

With this, you can tell most branches of Government about the death of a loved one.

"Unfortunately that doesn't extend to the private sector, which is why this campaign is so important."

"We also have free resources available on Marie Curie website to help you, and a free support line on 08000902309."

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