Unhappy service from Liberty Life

I received an email from Liberty Life advising that I had not paid my premium since April 2024 ... the problem happened when I was out of the country and my policy was put on hold and reinstated when I returned to SA (25 May 2024). My problem is that I was unaware of this and cannot believe that it took Liberty from April until now to let me know that I was in arrears with my payment. Now I am expected to come up with almost R3 500-00 and I have not been working for 2 years. I am extremely unhappy with the service received from them. They had my email address and could have advised me of this.