Probate Service News Today

Our consumer champion SALLY HAMILTON picked up the phone to find the quickest way to speak to a real person on some of the UKs busiest helplines.

Civil service probate delays are stalling cancer research and holding up millions in donations to charities, MPs have been told.

Ministers have vowed to crack down on the misery of endless waiting in a telephone queue while being tortured by holding musak.

Government services in Britain seem to be grinding to a halt. This week it was revealed that civil servants in the probate registry will no longer answer telephone enquiries after lunchtime. Their justification for this decision is that their huge backlog of probate documentation can only be tackled if they close their helpline at 1pm every day, for a period of at least three months.

According to the latest quarterly statistics from HM Courts and Tribunals Service, which runs the probate service, probate applications took an average of 14 weeks between April and June. There is currently a backlog of around 8,000 probate applications.

The Treasurys coffers are given a boost as inheritance tax receipts rise, but Jeremy Hunt failed to budge on the tax in the Autumn Statement last month.

The law on so-called death bed gifts - gifts made in contemplation of death - is strict, says ex- judge Stephen Gold. He explains rules on codicils, leaving it all to cat and dog charities, and more.

Today, in the final part of his guide aimed at helping This is Money readers sort out a loved ones finances, Stephen Gold describes how to squeeze yet more compensation from banks slow to hand over cash.

Stephen Gold finds a way to prise cash out of Lloyds after it refuses to budge over a no-interest account, then gets a stern reception at the probate service when he tries to complain about a 16-week delay.

After successfully adding many hundreds of pounds more to his late aunts estate, Stephen Gold offers a guide for This is Money readers facing the ordeal of sorting out a loved ones finances.