My partner has received a letter from the DWP about the death of her father. This simply confirms the status of his state pension and gives an 0345 contact number.

What's not nice is the contact details they give for Cruse, the well known bereavement charity. They give 0844 477 9400 as the contact number, despite the fact that Cruse no longer use it. Cruse publishes a free 0808 number:
https://www.cruse.org.uk/

Googling that 0844 numbers shows that some bits of Cruse aren't aware of the correct number: http://www.crusecroydon.org.uk/nathelpline.html

The only way to address this issue is to contact each purveyor of an incorrect number and get them to correct their publications.

In some cases, it may be practical to urge the user of the number to press news of its updates on those inclined to refer to it.

The urges its supporters to use what time and energy they can to this end, and is grateful for what they are able to do.

allegro wrote on Jan 18^th, 2018 at 12:27pm:


It's awful to receive this at such a difficult time, sadly it appears it takes time to get things updated at the DWP.

Are they any contact details (apart from the 0345 number) online for the part of DWP who sent the letter?  Maybe they could be contacted (perhaps online) to alert them to the error.

I recently received a letter at the Job Centre and they still have the 0345 number printed for them, despite it changing to 0800.

allegro wrote on Jan 18^th, 2018 at 12:27pm:


I have e-mailed Cruse Croydon and alerted them to this error.

Let's hope it's updated soon.

Speaking as a recently bereaved person even if you use Cruse's published 0808 number on their website its a total waste of time as they always say they are too busy to answer your call at the moment and to call them back later.  Or one time I got through at 4.25pm on a Friday and was not told to call back later and then waited in the queue till 5pm when I was cut off (as they disconnected the switchboard and pushed off home).

Eventually I had to call their Central Admin number of 020 8939 9530 (listed at the bottom of their Contact Us page) and spoke to someone there explaining I could never raise help on the 0808 number.  After that they called me back and told me to go an introductory meeting in High Wycombe but on the day I got there I had huge trouble finding it as the building isn't branded CRUSE but as some church charity and was in any case closed in normal weekday working hours.  Also there was nobody I could phone at this point to say where are you in High Wycombe as they don't have an incoming phone number for general queries at that branch. Eventually after many inquiries I found a hidden back entrance to this address and the CRUSE session was in some pretty cold, bleak and depressing room.  All the other people there were widows in their 70s or 80s so as a bereaved son of 50 I didn't feel very at home or as though I fitted in.

But after some further complaints to the 020 Admin number and a call back to me from their National Operations director I did eventually have five hour long one to one sessions in High Wycombe with a very experienced male counselling volunteer in his 60s who I did get on with and also find quite useful.  Although I would say the death of a parent is made especially bad by all the horrendous admin you are sucked in to on probate and inheritance tax and having to sell their house and get valuations on it and clear it, all of which constantly screams at you "my parent is dead", "my parent is dead", "my parent is dead" etc.  If there wasn't a very aggressive 6 month clock ticking on paying inheritance tax and your parent wasn't still in a home they owned or they only rented their home then their death and sorting everything out won't be quite as distressing and painful.

Bottom line is you have to be very determined and persistent indeed to get help from CRUSE as their resources seem to be distinctly mismatched with a high level of demand for their services.

I have since found out that most GP practices offer bereavement counselling services so that may be another way for people to go if they can't seem to find help from CRUSE.