Backing for bereaved campaign

The Low Incomes Tax Reform Group has called for HMRC to pilot a Tell Us Once scheme, in which the bereaved can report a death to a single government agency, which would then notify all the relevant organisations concerned.

This would save people the trauma of having to report the same death several times to different departments.

Denise Thornton, a director at the firm, said "The group also suggested that HMRC should offer face-to-face help and home visits for vulnerable taxpayers, or pay for the voluntary sector to do so, and wants the department to take steps to end the overpayment of tax by elderly people."

Group chairman John Andrews said: "LITRG tries to join up the activity of HMRC with other departments, such as the Department for Work and Pensions, and we are continually frustrated at the silo mentality of ostensibly customer-facing organisations.

"People need the maximum support from all government departments at the time of bereavement."

The group launched its campaign late last year. It is being supported by research and data from the advice charity, TaxHelp for Older People.

Martin Hodgson, who is the chairman of trustees of TaxHelp for Older People, said: "Government could do so much more to help people who are bereaved, simply by linking up systems and thinking through what could be done automatically.

"That way, bereaved people will not have to report the same thing continually to different government agencies – or even to different departments within the same agency.

"A more thoughtful and creative use of existing mechanisms is all that is needed. And it can be done at low or negligible cost."