After the death of someone close to them, people report being in a cloud of grief; a reactive state that makes it hard to complete the numerous forms across multiple service providers that need to be notified of the death. In some cases, it can take over 30 hours of a customers' time and up to 40 forms to notify all the organisations required after a person dies, and on average it can take up to 42 days after the death for family members to start notifying organisations.
NSW Births, Death and Marriage (BDM) and the Life Journeys team within the NSW Department of Customer Service (DCS) have launched Australian Death Notification Service, to allow customers to notify multiple organisations that someone has died via a single and secure online location. This new service allows notification after a death to happen earlier in a less painful manner for customers.
The service works by validating details of the person who has died against the Australian Death Check which holds the death registration data recorded by each Births, Deaths and Marriages (BDM) registries across Australia. Once the details have been validated, customers can choose the relevant institutions and services to inform, and provide their own contact details for any next steps.
The service turns a lengthy and emotionally charged process into a simple and straightforward one that takes around 10 minutes to complete. It also provides efficiencies for participating organisations' internal workflows as the service integrates directly into their current bereavement processes.
This project is an excellent example of the strength of great collaboration with the private sector to make the lives of everyday people easier; working with Australia's leading banks, telecommunications and utilities companies to better understand their systems and processes and to take into consideration their needs as well as those of the customer.
Visit Australian Death Notification Service to learn more, or contact the team now.
