Dead Man Warned He Will Lose Council Benefits
BBC News, July 13, 2000
A London council has written to a man telling him his council tax benefit was being stopped because he was dead.
Lambeth Borough Council's benefits department sent the letter to William Reynolds, who died in April from cancer, two weeks ago.
It said his benefit was being stopped because of his death and urged him to contact a hotline if he wanted to contest the decision.
The council has condemned the actions of its housing benefit contractor, Capita Business Services, and demanded an overhaul of the company's entire system to avoid a repeat of the incident.
The letter was opened by Christine Allery who moved into Mr. Reynolds' flat in West Norwood, South London, last month.
It read: "Your Council Tax Benefit has been stopped from 17 April 2000 because there has been a change in your circumstances, the change is because you are dead."
Council leader Tony Franklin said it was an indefensible error.
"We are demanding that Capita overhauls its systems immediately to ensure that such a form of words never appears again, even on internal documentation," he said.
I work for a government bureaucracy; we’ve killed off people who weren’t.