NSW govt, ANZ trial national one-stop death notification service

The NSW government has begun piloting a new service that will eventually allows citizens to notify government agencies and other organisations across Australia when a family member or friend passes away.

Customer service minister Victor Dominello took to social media on Tuesday to kick off the first pilot of the national death notification service with ANZ Banking Group to simplify the process of dealing with deceased estates.

The beta service has been developed by the Department of Customer Service in collaboration with Births, Deaths and Marriages agencies across Australia to remove the need for individuals to visit an ANZ branch to settle accounts.

It is ultimately intended to transition into a fully-fledged 'tell us once' service that allows citizens to notify government agencies, financial institutions, utilities and other subscription-based services when a person dies.

“Ultimately we want more financial institutions and other organisations to come on board,” Dominello said.

“This way you notify the NDNS - and it will notify other organisations subject to your consent.”

The service works by matching details about the deceased person against the Australian Death Check register, an equally new system developed by Queensland’s Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages.

The national register, which like the notification service is still in a trial phase, holds 2.5 million death records dating back to 2000 from Births, Deaths and Marriages agencies across Australia.

It currently allows agencies and eligible commercial entities to verify information against death certificates issued in NSW, Queensland, Victoria and South Australia through approved data brokers.

Fraud and identity verification firm GBG last month said it was one of the first brokers to be participating in the soft launch of the national register, which will act as a single source of truth for death records.