Public Funding for Kind Call Ltd

Approximately 600,000 UK deaths occur per year with another 45,000 lives tragically claimed by Covid-19 in 2020 so far. Each loss is a emotional burden on bereaved families, but also presents operational challenges for multiple service-suppliers; death industry businesses; local councils; social services; and health care professionals, all of whom have a duty of care to support legal and contractual processes after someone dies. In May 2020 Kind Call Ltd (operating under the name [Settld][0]) was selected for a Covid-19 (DeMinimus) Rapid Response Innovate UK Grant to develop an account closure prototype. Now in closed beta testing, this product automates the account closure process for law firms and local councils, saving up to 95% in administrative time previously needed to complete this task. It also provides a new, automated notification channel for service providers to reduce traffic to their customer call lines and prevent potential brand damage when they fail to attend to bereavement cases swiftly and sensitively (i.e. [Halifax adds to the hell of bereavement][1]). Building on from the success of our prototype, the SIF project allows us to expand our MVP into a direct, carbon-free, end-of-life platform to connect businesses with bereaved consumers. Our full product will include: * Pre-death planning and support: digital document storage, links to funeral planning, insurance and will-writing. * Marketplace: connecting service-suppliers, probate law firms, health providers, local authorities and other companies to consumers, for all aspects of direct cremation and end-of-life celebration. * Automated account closure (existing prototype): facilitating low cost, high efficiency, stress free estate administration. This project reduces the impact of COVID-19 for multiple industries, by providing a digital solution which supports business operational efficiency, reduces expenditure, enhances customer service, and maintains trust between organisation and their customers. We contribute to an improved sustainable economy via transparent corporate governance for bereaved/vulnerable customers and bring a scalable and paperless solution to an industry in desperate need of digital transformation. [0]: https://www.settld.care/ [1]: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/money/halifax-adds-to-the-hell-of-bereavement-593zjx0qh

**Kind Call: Automating end of-life** **admin.** Covid-19 means that hundreds of families each day are facing bereavement. With their tragic loss comes the arduous task of closing or updating the 10-15 accounts (utilities, TV, mobile, broadband, entertainment, subscriptions etc) that the deceased will have held. The role is left to bereaved families, or an appointed Executor, who will need to seperately call, write or email each company, then wait for up to 10 business days for a reply. Accounts can take weeks to close down. It is consequently a stressful and time consuming task for many, and is considered an unwelcome distraction from the things that really matter. Since service providers need the same key data points to close or update the deceased accounts, **we want to automate this process.** Our service allows users to contact multiple companies, in one go, in under 10 minutes. This works in a similar way to the Government's "Tell Us Once" service, but is for private sector suppliers (utilities, TV, mobile, broadband, entertainment subscriptions etc). Longer term, our ambition is to integrate with Tell Us Once, so that the public have **one, free, service, which they can turn to for support.**