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Two Together: Save £100!
Save £100 when you purchase two funeral plans together. Call us for more details.
12 minute read
When someone dies, one of the first things we may ask ourselves is ‘Do you need a Death Certificate for a funeral?’. Whether it’s the unexpected death of a loved one, or someone else who was close to us, all of the admin that comes with a funeral can be bewildering and intimidating, and many people are surprised by quite how much there is. In this article, we want to talk about the importance of the Death Certificate for making funeral arrangements, and to offer some guidance on how to obtain one.
We also wanted to say that, if you’ve been brought to this article because you’ve suddenly found yourself needing to know what to do when someone dies, or feel you may need to know in the near future, we understand the difficulty of your situation. Aura is the UK’s top-rated provider of ‘Cremation Services’ on Trustpilot, due to our family-run ethos and compassionate approach to service. Our industry-leading Aura Angels are there to guide families through the complexities of funeral arranging, leading them through the admin, and lending an ear, if needed, too.
In a word, yes: a Death Certificate is needed for a funeral in the UK. It’s one of the three main pieces of paper that are required before a funeral can go ahead legally. The other two are the Medical Certificate of Death (MCCD), and the ‘Green Form’, which is the form stating that the funeral can proceed. You can start working with a funeral director to arrange the funeral without the Death Certificate, but it can’t finally proceed until you’ve got it.
When someone dies, a medical professional will need to make an assessment of their cause of death. Once they have established this, and it has been verified by the ‘Medical Examiner’ (as per changes to the death-registration process made in September 2024), then they’ll complete the ‘Medical Certificate of Cause of Death’. It’s the certificate dealing with the medical aspect of a death, containing the immediate cause of the person’s death, as well as any possible underlying causes and contributory factors. When they have completed it, they will send it to the Registrar’s office local to where the death occurred.
With this completed, you can then set up a meeting with the Registrar in order to officially register the death and get the Death Certificate. The Death Certificate will carry over the cause of death from the MCCD, and contain some other personal information about the person who has died; it is given to you by the Registrar. At the same time, they will issue the ‘Green Form’, which is a permit allowing the funeral to go ahead.
The Death Certificate is a very important document for legal purposes. You might find that you will need it in order to take control of the estate of the person who has died, or to handle their financial matters, such as closing their bank accounts. If you need money in their bank accounts to pay for their funeral, it can be especially important, just as it is if you are relying on an over-50s life insurance policy of theirs. Financial institutions will usually request a copy of the Death Certificate before they are willing to do anything relating to the financial affairs of their former client.
A direct cremation or burial cannot go ahead without the ‘Certificate for Burial or Cremation’, usually referred to as the ‘Green Form’. When you register a death in the UK with the Registrar, they’ll give you the Death Certificate, and also issue the Green Form. The Green Form is sent by the Registrar to the funeral director, or sometimes directly to the crematorium.
The process of obtaining the Death Certificate is straightforward, but there is potential for delay depending on whether there is involvement from the coroner (or Procurator Fiscal in Scotland).
The death needs to be officially registered before a Death Certificate can be granted, which needs to be done within five days of the death occurring in England and Wales, and within eight days in Scotland. This can be done once the MCCD has been sent to the local Registrar office.
There may be circumstances in which the death needs to be referred to the coroner or Procurator Fiscal; namely, when the death is unexpected, or if the circumstances surrounding it are unclear. In such a case, the coroner will take charge of the situation, launching an investigation into the death, which may require a post-mortem examination of the body of the person who has died.
It could even be possible that a post-mortem investigation doesn’t establish the cause of death, at which point, they could launch what is called a ‘coroner’s inquest’. This is a fact-finding exercise which aims to determine:
Evidently, this could all potentially delay the official registration of the death, and, in the meantime, the person who has died still requires to have their funeral. Therefore, whilst the cause of death is waiting to be determined, the coroner can issue what’s called an ‘Interim Death Certificate’. This document can be used to the same effect as a normal Death Certificate, allowing the funeral to go ahead, and allowing you to see to the financial matters which relate to the estate of the person who has died. It can also help to arrange a funeral for the person who has died in a shorter time.
There are a number of different parties who can take responsibility for funeral arrangements, from the executor of the will, to someone picked by the family, to the state.
If someone close to us has died, and they have a will – that is, a legal record of what the person who has died wanted to happen to their estate and possibly with their funeral – then it can be used to establish the will’s ‘executor’. The executor will then normally take care of funeral arrangements. If someone dies without a will, it can make things complicated, leading the family to decide among themselves who should take charge. Often, this person will know in advance that they are to take charge of arranging the person’s funeral, especially if they had a prepaid funeral plan in place. With Aura, as part of the buying process, the person will choose a loved one or a friend to be our point of contact when it comes time to put their plan into action.
If the person who has died has no will, and also nobody left behind who is willing or able to take charge of the funeral, the local government has a legal obligation to provide one for them; this is a ‘public health funeral’, and is also referred to by the old-fashioned term ‘Pauper’s Funeral’. This could be an attended or unattended burial or cremation depending on the local authority required to organise things.
Even once it is decided who ought to deal with the funeral arrangements of the person who has died, they won’t have to face that time alone. With Aura, families are supported through the difficult time of planning the funeral of a loved one by our Aura Angels. They use their vast knowledge of funeral coordination to make sure that everything goes smoothly, giving the one who has died the send-off they deserve.
At Aura, we recognise that everyone deals with grief differently, whether coping with the death of a parent or of anyone else. Some like to busy themselves with the admin involved with a death, where others feel they need a bit of extra support. However you decide to handle it is absolutely fine; just know that the Aura Angels are on hand to make sure that the paperwork is completed correctly, and to provide personalised support where needed.
A will (or the lack thereof) can have big consequences for funeral arrangements. There is also the question of probate to consider too.
Even if someone doesn’t have a funeral plan arranged and paid for before they die, they may give some indication of the kind of funeral they’d like to have in their will. For instance, they might express a wish to have a direct cremation funeral instead of a burial, or they may have cremation ashes ideas, such as where to be scattered, or they may detail end-of-life celebration ideas.
Of course, whilst a will might suggest a preference from the person who has died as to their funeral wishes, these are not legally binding. But the family, having learned what their loved one would have wanted, may feel a special need to arrange things as per their specification.
Many people find themselves relying on the estates of their loved ones in order to cover the costs of a funeral for them, especially if they have died without a prepaid funeral plan in place, or if they were the main breadwinner in the family. In order to access their funds, whether to gain access to their bank accounts, or to execute the estate, we have to apply for a process called ‘probate’ (referred to as ‘confirmation’ in Scotland). Probate allows all of the beneficiaries to be sure that the distribution of assets is legal and fair, helping to avoid family disputes.
Probate is a legal process whereby a probate court verifies the legality and authenticity of the will, as well as confirming that the named executor has the legal authority to distribute the person’s assets according to what they have specified in their will. Banks often have their own internal processes for allowing the family to access the account of a customer who has died, meaning that funerals can often be paid for before the will has been executed or probate granted. If you find yourself in this situation, it might be a good idea to check with your own bank what their process around this is, as they may be able to help you more quickly.
It is also possible to execute someone’s estate when they have died without a will, usually by applying for something called a “grant of letters of administration”. It is a form of legal power allowing someone to distribute someone’s estate based on the letters of intestacy.
The process of executing the estate of someone who has died, and of applying for probate, cannot proceed until the death has been officially registered, and until the Death Certificate has been issued.
Alongside the Death Certificate, Medical Certificate of Cause of Death (MCCD), a further document is needed before a funeral can go ahead: the Certificate of Burial or Cremation, or ‘Green Form’. This document is issued alongside the Death Certificate, but it is usually sent directly to the crematorium or the funeral director selected by the next of kin.
It is an important document as, not only does it allow the funeral establishment to see that permission has been granted by the local council for the funeral to go ahead, but the medical referee at the crematorium can check it too. They can compare it against the identity information sent with the person who has died following their transportation to the crematorium. Once they have matched up the details, the burial or cremation can go ahead. If you’d like to learn more about the steps we take when caring for your loved one, you can click the link.
We hope that this article has been useful and informative for you. If any questions have arisen through anything you’ve read, whether about registering a death, getting a Death Certificate, announcing a death to friends or family, we are here to help you and to point you in the right direction.
At Aura, we pride ourselves on the compassion, patience and kindness of the service we offer those in need of our cremation services. They are available to both those who need to arrange a direct cremation at short notice, as well as those looking to the future with a prepaid funeral plan. In both cases, it’s our wonderful, compassionate Aura Angel team who’ll be there to guide you or your family through the difficult experience of funeral arranging for a loved one. They’re not only experts in funeral coordination, but can lend you an ear if you need to talk about what you’re going through. We’re there for you on the phone, whenever you’re ready.
We’re a family-run company, founded by Paul Jameson in 2019 after he learned that he has motor neurone disease. He set up Aura in order to make sure that families in the UK would benefit from his confrontation with his own mortality, and his experience with end-of-life planning. He runs the company today alongside his son, David (our CEO), and a family friend called Ben (our COO). Aura’s mission is to provide a service that never compromises on quality, and never drops below what Paul wants for his own family. We’re also the UK’s top-rated provider of ‘Cremation Services’ on Trustpilot, with a score of 4.9/5 stars.
