The dead list.

[Grumpmeister]

I give it a couple of months before the first story hits about a government department cock up leading to the Inland Revenue taking someone who is dead to court because they havent paid their taxes. 

Details of everyone who has died in the UK are to be released in an attempt to prevent their use in identity fraud.

Encrypted files containing the information would be sent every week to vetted organisations, including credit agencies, the government said.

The move aims to stop the use of obituaries to create false identities to open bank accounts, commit benefit fraud or aid illegal immigration.

It is thought identity fraud costs the UK in the region of £1.7bn every year.

Information will be released on about 12,000 people a week via the General Register Office for England & Wales and its Scottish and Northern Irish counterparts.

The data will be sent to credit checking firms who have applied to receive the information.

Meg Hillier, Home Office minister with responsibility for identity fraud, welcomed the initiative.

She said the release would "not only help to combat identity fraud, but will also reduce the impact on relatives of the deceased forced to deal with the consequence of their loved ones' identities being stolen".

'Threads of deception'

Peter Hurst, chief executive of Cifas the UK's fraud frevention service, said: "The number of individuals affected continues to be far too high."

He added: "Identity fraud is serious, and no-one should be complacent about it. Quite apart from financial losses, the effect on victims can be very distressing.

"Where a victim's identity has been seriously compromised, it can be an extremely time consuming and frustrating process to untangle the threads of deception."

The announcement coincides with the start of National Identity Fraud Prevention Week, a government-backed awareness drive to warn of the risks of ID fraud.

[Snoopy]

I give it a couple of months before the first story hits about a government department cock up leading to the Inland Revenue taking someone who is dead to court because they havent paid their taxes. 

Oh they've done that quite a few times.
Just my own experience:
Southampton City Council were still trying to take my father to court alleging unpaid council tax two years after we had told them of his death and two years after his widow (my mother obviously) had moved to Dorset.
After Mum died the Revenue started to pursue my dead father over his failure to send in a tax return from beyond the grave. They kept applying "fines" for his tardiness in failing to file a return and/or make any payments.
I got them to stop only after lengthy arguments and by inviting them to "dig him up" for their proposed court action.
Production of Death Certificates for both parents made no difference to them. I did actually get one letter that read "Dear Mr Deceased".

[Grumpmeister]

The Dear Mr Deceased phenomenon is common when you have poorly trained morons who change the name of the account holder to Deceased in the belief that the system will then suppress the record, regardless of the fact that there is nothing in the system that would even suggest that would work.

[Pastis]

This was a good one from last week:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7648021.stm

The reminders came despite the fact that the headteacher had written to GEZ stating that "the addressee is no longer in a position to listen to the radio or watch television".