1. The scale of the problem
Around 570,988 deaths were registered in England and Wales in 2025, broadly stable on the year before [1]. Against that backdrop, 56% of UK adults have no will in place, including 53% of those aged 50 to 64 [2]. The consequences show up in the probate system: 51,140 estates were administered without a valid will in 2024, a five-year high and a 17% rise on the year before, and the number of probate cases taking longer than a year to resolve has risen 518% in five years, from 377 in 2019 to 2,328 in 2024 [3].
2. The paperwork mountain
A typical estate requires somewhere between 40 and 60 individual notifications to different organisations [4]. The government’s free Tell Us Once service covers around 20 central and local government bodies in a single report, but banks, insurers, pension providers, utility companies and subscriptions all have to be contacted separately [5]. Research commissioned by insurer Zurich (delivered via bereavement support service Empathy) found that professional support could save a family an average of 148 hours of admin and £2,319 after a bereavement, which gives a sense of the scale of the task when nobody has that support [6].
More than a quarter of bereaved workers responsible for administering an estate had to contact seven or more organisations, spanning banks, local councils, pension providers, utility companies, HMRC, insurers and the Probate Registry [7].
Digitally, the average person now holds around 100 online accounts [8]. Separately, 43% of UK adults (an estimated 22.9 million people) say they have not shared full details of their financial accounts with anyone they trust [9]. Executors have no automatic right to access a deceased person’s online accounts, and using someone else’s login without authority can, in principle, breach the Computer Misuse Act 1990.
3. The financial squeeze
SunLife’s Cost of Dying Report 2026 puts the average simple attended funeral at £3,828, rising to £5,140 once a wake and other extras are included; a traditional, more elaborate attended funeral averages £4,510, while direct cremation averages £1,628 and can start from around £895 [10]. On the same report’s figures, roughly 1 in 6 UK families who arrange a funeral experience some form of funeral poverty, unable to pay without debt, borrowing or going without elsewhere [11].
Government support exists but is limited: the Funeral Expenses Payment (Social Fund) covers burial or cremation fees in full, plus up to £1,000 towards other costs such as the funeral director’s fees, flowers or the coffin, but only for people already receiving certain means-tested benefits [12].
Separately, the cost of the probate process itself increased sharply in 2026: the HMCTS probate application fee rose from £300 to £526 on 13 July 2026, for estates over £5,000 (no fee below that threshold) [13]. Sole-name bank accounts are frozen the moment a bank is told of the death, which is a significant driver of short-term cash-flow pressure on families, though banks will often release funds directly for the funeral bill on production of an invoice and death certificate [12].
4. Delay and backlogs
Online probate applications are currently taking roughly 5 to 12 weeks once submitted, with clean applications (no queries raised) at the faster end; paper applications are taking around 16 weeks on average. This is a marked improvement on the late-2023 peak of around 16 weeks for all applications, though the Probate Registry’s caseload has remained above its own target level through 2026 [14].
5. The workplace fallout
A YouGov survey commissioned by Octopus Legacy (June 2026) found that 53% of bereaved workers responsible for handling a loved one’s affairs carried out at least some of that work during normal working hours, and 80% said the process affected their ability to work. 41% needed extra leave, unpaid time or reduced hours beyond any bereavement leave entitlement; more than a quarter missed work days outright, and 32% reported difficulty concentrating. Nearly one in ten considered leaving their job altogether while managing the practical aftermath of a death; 5% actually left and 9% retired earlier than planned [7].
There is currently no general statutory right to bereavement leave in the UK beyond parental bereavement leave (Jack’s Law, for the death of a child or stillbirth after 24 weeks). Most employers offer two to five days at their own discretion. A statutory entitlement of at least one week is expected to come into force during 2026 to 2027, with a broader right following the death of a loved one expected in 2027 [15].
6. Money that gets lost
Estimates of unclaimed financial assets sitting dormant in the UK, across bank accounts, pensions, investments and prizes, range from around £15 billion upward, depending on methodology and what is counted. Industry estimates suggest at least 2.8 million lost pension pots, averaging around £9,400 each [16]. These figures should be treated as order-of-magnitude estimates from secondary industry sources rather than a single authoritative total; worth re-checking against a primary source (such as the Pensions Policy Institute or ABI) before quoting externally.
7. The emotional toll
In early bereavement, over half of people report high support needs around managing grief itself (49.9 to 59.8%) and around anxiety and depression specifically (52.8%), alongside social isolation and loneliness (52.0%) [17]. This is offered here as context for why practical admin landing on top of acute grief is a particular problem, not as a headline statistic for external use, it comes from clinical literature rather than a consumer survey and should be handled carefully in any public-facing content, consistent with the guardrails around sensitive material.
A note on registering a death
A death must be registered within 5 days in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, or within 8 days in Scotland [18]. This can usually be extended, in practice, where the medical certificate has been issued but the registrar needs more time, registrars have discretion to allow a further period (commonly cited as up to 9 days) and will not usually penalise a short, unavoidable delay. Where a death is referred to a coroner, the standard deadline does not apply until the coroner’s investigation concludes.
Compiled August 2026. These figures are drawn from government data, industry reports and reputable surveys current at the time of writing. Fees, benefit rates and survey-based figures change at least annually, check the relevant source before using any figure in external-facing content. Where a figure comes from a secondary source summarising a primary report, this is noted.
References
[1] ONS, Death registration summary statistics, England and Wales, 2025. https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/deathregistrationsummarystatisticsenglandandwales/2025
[2] Money and Pensions Service, Over half of UK adults don’t have a will, what to do if your loved one dies without one, 2025. https://maps.org.uk/en/media-centre/press-releases/2025/over-half-of-uk-adults-dont-have-a-will
[3] DNA Legal, Inheritance Dispute Statistics UK 2026. https://www.dnalegal.com/inheritance-dispute-statistics
[4] Help After Loss, Who to Notify When Someone Dies: 60+ UK Organisations. https://helpafterloss.co.uk/notify
[5] GOV.UK, What to do when someone dies: step by step (Tell Us Once). https://www.gov.uk/when-someone-dies
[6] Which?, What financial admin do families face after a bereavement?, 31 May 2026. https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/what-financial-admin-do-families-face-after-a-bereavement-ahwm47q2wP6X
[7] HRreview (reporting Octopus Legacy / YouGov survey), Half of grieving workers handle ‘death admin’ during work hours, June 2026. https://hrreview.co.uk/hr-news/wellbeing-news/half-of-grieving-workers-handle-death-admin-during-work-hours/388431
[8] NordPass research, reported via CNN Business, We each have an average of 100 online accounts. https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/26/tech/digital-legacy-planning-personal-technology/index.html
[9] St. James’s Place, 22.9 million Brits overlook digital legacy. https://www.sjp.co.uk/media-centre/latest-news/229-million-brits-overlook-digital-legacy-failing-to-share-details-of-financial-accounts
[10] SunLife, Cost of Dying Report 2026. https://www.sunlife.co.uk/over-50-life-insurance/funeral-costs/
[11] CremationCompare, Funeral Poverty UK: Help, Grants and Low-Cost Options (citing SunLife Cost of Dying Report), 2026. https://cremationcompare.co.uk/guides/funeral-poverty-uk
[12] GOV.UK, Get help with funeral costs (Funeral Expenses Payment). https://www.gov.uk/funeral-payments
[13] GOV.UK / Ministry of Justice, Court and tribunal fees: updates from July 2026. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/court-and-tribunal-fees-updates-from-july-2026
[14] WithFarra, Probate Waiting Times 2026: How Long Probate Takes Right Now. https://withfarra.co.uk/guides/probate-waiting-times-uk-2026
[15] DavidsonMorris, Bereavement Leave 2026: Entitlement, Duration and What You’re Owed. https://www.davidsonmorris.com/bereavement-leave/
[16] insighthq.uk, Billions in Unclaimed UK Money: The 2026 Guide to Reclaiming Dormant Accounts, Pensions and Premium Bonds. https://insighthq.uk/billions-in-unclaimed-uk-money-the-2026-guide-to-reclaiming-dormant-accounts-pensions-and-premium-bonds/
[17] Death Studies (Taylor and Francis), The psychological burden of bereavement in the general population of UK and Ireland, 2024. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07481187.2024.2420877
[18] GOV.UK, Register a death. https://www.gov.uk/register-a-death
