Abuse of deceased member's children

Hello Peter. I write this in distress and frustration over Momentum Insurers dishonour. About 4 years ago, I lost my sister who'd taken out the Child Education Benefit policy with Momentum for her 2 children. The eldest child, my niece, who has lost both parents is currently in her final year at university. For the first 2 years, Momentum, with the help of PPS (my sister's last employer) honoured the policy when it came to my niece. In the 3rd year, Momentum decided that it would not cover tuition as promised because they were not informed by the university that she received funding from another bursary. Momentum said it felt cheated and for most of 2025 they insisted the university pays them a balance of about R6 000. The other bursary would cover her accomodation and allowances because the Child Benefit Program only covers tuition. It is confusing to this day why her having another bursary would be a problem seeing as they only covered part of the cost but our niece was already stressed enough by school and her university's lack of communication with the insurer so we did not contest their arguement. At the start of this year, my niece went over the program's booklet, if you will, and indeed found a clause stating that in the event that a child is awarded a bursary, Momentum Insurers would grant the child 40% of what the bursary gives instead of covering tuition. So, she informed Momentum's Aneeqah Van Der Schyff via *** with all necessary documentation and evidence at the start of the year after registering successfully. We foolishly believed they would honour their word. Instead, Momentum decided that it would not pay anything out until the university refunded them the balance they feel they are owed. My niece's question is, from the 40% they vowed to pay, why not subtract the money they feel they are owed and pay her? A month or two after February, my niece was informed by her handler at PPS that Aneeqah had gone on maternity leave and therefore her issue would likely be resolved after that leave. Still, PPS and my niece reached out relentlessly to Momentum that would respond with, "We do not have a specific administrator for this problem but we have a dedicated team that can assist..." The dedicated team is nowhere to be found. We are now nearing October and my deceased sister's child who was under the impression that even if insurers are known for cruel antics, surely they would never put their deceased client's children under distress, has not received a cent from momentum. It is to the point that PPS withdrew from helping her by sending communication to her and Momentum stating that they may liaise directly with each other. What we're asking for is for Momentum to subtract the money they feel they're owed from the 40% of all that NSFAS has covered (tuition, accomodation and allowances)

We do not want to be asked for any more documents because all documents they asked for were already sent. Any request for documentation will prove to be another delay antic.

This entire experience has taught us that not only is Momentum Insurers happy to add more distress to a grieving client's child but that it's best to pursue legal action against these people.

I hope anyone looking to take out a policy with Momentum Insurers, especially one that covers their children in the event of death, considers that doing so would be the most cruel way of telling their children never to trust insurers