Overview

Independent estimates suggest that, on average, around 170,000 mailings are delivered every day – all addressed to people who are now dead.

Not only does Mortascreen provide a means of preventing this unnecessary distress to bereaved families, it can also save your company considerable amounts of money and the possibility of costly, negative PR.

Any company sending out direct mail to consumers should be using Mortascreen for cleansing cold lists or for ongoing database management. This type of deceased suppression file is now accepted as industry ‘best practice’ and for good reason.

Mortascreen contains the name and address details of nearly 6 million deceased individuals.  Approaching half a million records are collected and added each year.  On average we collect between 40,000 - 60,000 records per month, accounting for roughly 85% of all deaths in the UK.  This makes Mortascreen the largest and most reliable source of deceased names currently available, with the most current collection of recent deaths. 

With effect from January 2006 additional information has been supplied within the file, including source/confidence indicator and date of birth where available.

Dependant on its source, each record has been allocated a confidence indicator ranging from level 10, highest confidence, to level 1, lower confidence. These indicators enable users to determine their own screening levels dependant on the input data.

This enhanced Mortascreen file now makes it even easier to identify individuals who have died, enabling clients to remove the details from their mailing files or to flag their databases ensuring more accurately targeted mailing campaigns and better maintained customer records.

Source Information

Mortascreen is built from the following sources:

Governmental Records – official notification of certified deaths
This is a highly verified data source from official Government records. Backed by Probate Registry Number.  Due to the nature of the verification, these records are added to the file between 6 -12 weeks after death.

Funeral Directors – data supplied by agreement directly from Funeral Directors A highly verified data source supplied to us by both Independent and Group Funeral Directors as funeral arrangements are made.  Backed by Death Certificate Number. Added to the file 1 – 2 weeks after death.

Insurance Data – supplied by agreement from UK Insurance companies
Again, a highly verified data source from a number of UK Insurance companies following Life Policy claims.  Backed by Death Certificate Number. Added to the file 4 – 6 weeks after death.

Deceased Preference Service – Consumer registration service
Launched by Smee & Ford in April 2004, this service gives relatives/friends the facility to register details of the deceased either on-line, by freepost card or by freephone to a dedicated call centre.  Death certificate number is requested and each number is validated. Records added to the file on a daily basis.

Third Party Data – Non-verified data from Third Party sources
This relates to data supplied by agreement from several third party sources whereby they have been advised that a customer is deceased.  This data is not supported by death certificate number.  Added to the file 1 – 4 weeks after death.

Due to Data Confidentiality Agreements, the exact source of the Insurance and third party data is not disclosed.  This would be declared should a specific query arise.

File Updates

Updates to the Mortascreen file are currently made available on a monthly basis. 

Around 45,000 records are added to each update, accounting for approximately 85% of all deaths within the UK.

On occasion as new data sources are taken on board, the monthly updates will be significantly higher and will contain both recent and historic data.

Notification of death may come from numerous sources and will always assume the highest verification level within the file.  For example if a record is submitted via Deceased Preference Service Month 1, a second notification from Government sources may be received in Month 2.

 Confidence Indicators

 Each record is allocated a unique confidence indicator ranging from 1 to 10.  The higher the indicator, the greater the level of verification.

File Split By Gender

The Mortascreen file contains records of adults in the UK only. 

The file is split by gender as follows:

Male:              47.62%
Female:         51.93%
Unknown:       0.19%
Blank:               0.26%

File Split By Region

Mortascreen covers the whole of the UK - England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.  It also includes data of deaths in Isle of Man and Channel Islands

The file split by region is:

Recency Of Data

The Mortascreen file contains both recent and historic data split as follows: