Tell us Once

Baby smilingWhen you have had a baby in addition to registering the birth with the registrar, you may also need to contact other government departments, such as the Department for Work and Pensions, HMRC and other local authority services to inform them that your circumstances have changed.

'Tell us Once' is a free service where when you register the birth at the Register Office we then help you give the information to those agencies and local authority services.

Register a birth with the registrar

How you can contact us to use the service

If your baby was born in Rochdale or if you are a resident of Rochdale and your baby was born in hospital in Oldham, then you will need to make an appointment to register the birth. When you make your appointment you will be offered the Tell us Once service automatically.

  • Rochdale Register Office (tel. 01706 924785)

Who we can give the information to

In using the Tell us Once service we can then contact the following organisations on your behalf:

Department of Work and Pensions 

  • Income Support (IS)
  • Jobseekers Allowance (Contribution Based) (JSA(CB))
  • Jobseekers Allowance (Income Based) (JSA(IB))
  • Employment and Support Allowance (Income Related) (ESA)

HMRC

  • Child Benefit
  • Child Tax Credits
  • Working Tax Credits

Local Authority

  • Housing Benefit (HB)
  • Council Tax Benefit (CTB)
  • Library Services
  • Family Information Services (FIS)

How we will treat the information you give us

We will treat all the information you give us securely. The organisations we give your information to will use it to update records; to initiate /end services, benefits and entitlements as appropriate; and to resolve any outstanding issues. They may use the information we give them in other ways, but only as the law allows.

Information you will need to use the service

We want to make sure we give the right information to any organisations we contact. So we will need the following information about the parents named in the birth entry:

  • Their National Insurance number and date of birth
  • Details of any benefits or services they are receiving.

If the parents bring to the appointment a completed child benefit form with the accompanying pre paid envelope, the Registrar will verify the form to confirm that the birth has been registered and then submit the form on the parents behalf. When a Registrar verifies the child benefit form, a birth certificate does not need to be submitted.

Application form for Child Benefit

If parents intend to apply for Child Tax Credits and Working Tax Credits, using the Tell us Once service can fast track your application.