they have been deducting premiums

My niece has been with old mutual funeral cover for sometime.when she was on maternity they gave her a premium holiday for six months and after the maternity she went to the branch and informed them that she is back at work and premiums should continue as normal. They started deducting straight from her salary directly from payroll. Now my mother who is her grandmother passed away. We are taken from pillar to pole by old mutual. What's the point of paying funeral cover and when its needed they give us story