I hope this is the right section of the forum to post this question.
My partner for over 30 years died of cancer last weekend. We had intended to marry and had obtained a special licence but she died suddenly before the planned wedding date and with no time to get Register Office staff over to perform the wedding (they did try, but she became unresponsive). We had arranged with Macmillan to have a will written over the phone but that went wrong too: the will service company ignored the request to do it over the phone and sent us paperwork in the post that arrived a few days after my partner died.
So the situation is this: she has gone. I am - in the eyes of the law - no-one. We do have a son (9 years old) who should inherit her estate, and I assume that I will be the guardian who manages his estate, as his surviving parent. However, I can't find any clear guidance on how I proceed to do this. The probate web site won't let me proceed, as I'm not related to the deceased. A friend has done some research and thinks I don't need to go through probate anyway, as her estate is "excepted". I may have to set up a trust for my son, but I don't know how to do that. It may be that I have to apply for a "grant of letters of administration" from the Probate Office, but I haven't found out how to do that either. Presumably once I get that done, I can start contacting my partner's banks. There is also something about me being classed as a "personal representative" but I'm not sure where that comes in.
I've registered the death, used the government "Tell Us Once" service and applied for a Bereavement Payment. The DWP have contacted me about this and - apart from having to jump through some hoops regarding getting the Child Tax Credit transferred to my name - that seems to be on track. I've also found out how to get our jointly-owned home into my name only via the Land Registry. (That's a big relief!)
I'm finding it very difficult to find advice online or elsewhere about my particular situation. Attempts to contact Macmillan so far have failed (too many "gatekeepers" preventing me from contacting them).
I could get a solicitor to do all this for me, apart from one thing: I'm skint! (I've had bad experience with solicitors too, so don't trust them.)
Can anyone advise me on the steps I need to take to get through all this? It's quite awful to be in this situation on top of grieving for my partner and looking after our child.