Old Mutual - Are maybe a tad too old

I am a single mum of two, and recently took up a new position in another province. My previous employer submitted a withdrawal claim from my provident fund in the first week of December, 2017 which is nearly two months ago.

I called their call centre in the first week of January 2017 to track the progress of my claim and the agent assured me that they were in the final stages of checking and the funds would be in my account no later than the 7th of January 2018. I needed this to be the case as I was planning to use a portion of the money to supplement my relocation costs, so I asked them if there was anything untoward with regards to my claim such as SARS matters, inaccurate information etc, so that I could tend to it if need be, but the agent said all was in order, so I simply took her assurance and waited.

The money did not get transferred on the said date, so I decided to be proactive yet again and called their call centre to find out what was the hold up. To my dismay, they told me the claim was in limbo as my employer had not submitted all contributions due to me. I was infuriated to say the least, as I believe a company of that magnitude would have been able to pick up on such a discrepancy prior to my first call in early January. After calling my previous employer and ensuring that they themselves rectify the issue of outstanding contributions, I was informed that my claim would be paid out within 7 working days. That did not happen yet again. Liaison between my previous employer and a certain financial consultant from the company revealed that my funds were actually paid out to the WRONG account! You can imagine my distress when I read that email, as this surely indicates that someone at Old Mutual messed up big time! How does a company that old in this business make a payment to an account that has not been verified!?

We are now in February, and still nothing has been paid out. The last communication which I received three days ago was from the same lady who has been in communication with my previous employer, stating that she can confirm that the claim is in progress.

This serves no comfort to me as she herself has been ignoring some of the emails sent to her regarding my issue and has failed to indicate exactly how much longer I am going to wait for my money.

May this platform expose this company's inefficiency when it comes to handling the fund s of their beneficiaries and may this account of my dealings with them be a cause for concern to those who may find themselves in my shoes one day.