Daughter who kept receiving letters to late dad redirected them to cemetery

A grieving daughter tired of companies sending letters to her late father returned them with a new address – the cemetery where he’s buried.

Rachael Clark said her family have received numerous letters and emails from the DVLA and Scottish Power addressed to her father Richard Clark, who died aged 82 in 2022.

This is despite informing them both that her father was no longer alive.

In an upsetting coincidence, a letter from the DVLA even arrived on October 25 – the anniversary of his death.

In the letter, the government agency asked Richard to renew his licence which had ‘expired’.

Rachel was so angry she returned it to the DVLA with the address of where he’s buried, Belper Cemetery in Derbyshire.

But she said it’s Scottish Power that has been particularly bad, with the family bombarded with correspondence addressed to Richard. .

The situation became so distressing Rachael moved her mother Pat, 82, to a different energy supplier.

The 56-year-old education manager, said: ‘It is just so painful. It drags up all that loss and grief all over again.

‘I just think they don’t care, they are putting profit before people, and ultimately they are not bothered about the knock-on effects of that.

‘It’s been mainly emails from Scottish Power.

‘They’ve been the biggest cause of angst as it’s been two years of trying to get dads details removed from mum’s account.

‘Ever since we lost dad we’ve called them asking them to remove his name, we get endless emails.’

Just weeks before the second anniversary of his death Scottish Power emailed him, asking him to provide a new password.

Rachael, a development manager, said: ‘Scottish Power’s whole attitude right across the board has been ‘we don’t care’.

‘We were just speechless, we thought we’d done everything that we needed to do.

‘These organisations rely on systems that aren’t fit for purpose.

‘It’s horrible, you are living with that loss every single day and you have got these constant reminders.

‘You thought you had done everything you needed to do, then you get these emails and letters in the post and it brings it all back to you.’

She said companies need to take the issue seriously ‘because everybody, sadly, is going to be affected at some point in their life by bereavement’.

”They need to understand the impact of their action, or lack of action.’

Scottish Power and the DVLA have apologised for the blunder.

A Scottish Power spokesperson said: ‘The recent email received should not have been addressed to him as all account holder details had been changed back in March of this year – we are very sorry this happened.

‘We understand how upsetting it can be to receive bills and requests for payments addressed to a loved one who is no longer with us, and we do everything we can to help our customers during this period.

‘However, we are also required by law to meet certain rules when it comes to discussing account information with someone who is not named on the account which can, regrettably, cause a delay in amending account details.’

A DVLA spokesperson said: ‘We sympathise with Miss Clark and understand the distress caused.

‘We recommend people use Tell Us Once service, but unfortunately, on this occasion we did not receive notification that Mr Clark had passed away and we are looking into why this happened.

‘A member of staff will contact Miss Clark directly to discuss the case further.’

Richard died after multiple health issues including heart problems.

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