Trying to lay our family to rest: The impossible task - thanks to Old Mutual.

I received a call from my very tired, very traumatized 74-year-old mother this morning. She is the policy holder of a funeral policy for her sister. Her sister passed away over a week ago, and she has not been able to move on as she has not been able to lay her to rest. Why has she not been able to lay her sister to rest, you ask? Because she needs the money from the Old Mutual Funeral Policy to pay for the burial. My mother submitted her claim the day after her sister passed away and she has provided you with ALL required documentation.

Old Mutual later found out that the identity number as reflected on my mother’s identity book, is different from the identity number captured on the Old Mutual system.

The faulty identity number on your system has now wholly become my mother’s burden as she has been instructed by your claim processors to visit a police station and make an affidavit where she states, under oath, what her identity number is. A certified copy of her identity book isn’t sufficient to appease Old Mutual, but rather a longer more detailed process which requires her to attend at a dangerous area of town on her own. She had to do this while being sick with shock, having to attend doctors and trying to deal with the loss of her sister.

My mother, in a different town to me, then reaches out to ask if I can perhaps help her. Naturally, I immediately jump to my mother’s aid. I get the claim number, the policy number, the reference number, her sister’s death certificate. I get on the phone to Old Mutual at 10:02, and it takes you 50 minutes to answer the phone. It’s frustrating for me to deal with, how about my mother who is struggling immensely at this stage, who says that she deals with this several times a day, on a daily basis.

I then speak to an assistant who refuses to speak to me due to POPIA. She asks if she can speak to my mother. I say “no”, as my mother is not with me, she is in a different town. She completely refused to entertain any further conversation with me. She could have asked to be given an opportunity to phone my mother and confirm that she can speak to me, but no such effort to help us was made. I was just shot down. I completely understand the ramifications of POPIA, as I am an attorney specialising in privacy law.

Next, I ask for the number of the complaints department, and I am informed that Old Mutual cannot be contacted via the phone to share complaints. I am absolutely appalled by this. How can it be that the only way a complaint can be shared is via email or fax? Do you have so many complaints that you simply do not have the manpower to deal with it? How is this possible? How will I know whether a complaint was received? How will I know whether a complaint is dealt with? How can I, as an aggrieved party (or on behalf of an aggrieved party), be denied of the opportunity to speak with someone in the complaints department?

In my process of drafting an affidavit for my mother in an attempt to correct the negligence by Old Mutual, I looked at the claim document which she was issued with after her sister’s death. I found more mistakes on Old Mutual’s part. Not only was my mother’s identity number incorrect, but her late sister’s identity number also was incorrect, as well as the physical address.

We foresee more delays in processing this claim, due to the abovementioned mistakes by Old Mutual. We are shocked and mortified about how my mother has been treated. If we cannot speak to you directly, I am sure we can speak to the Ombud.