Useless Old Mutual service

This morning I accompanied my grandmother to Old Mutual Silverton to claim due to her younger brother passing away on the 16 October 2017 and would like to bury him on the 21 October 2017. She was told that the policy is fully paid up but the policy is inactive. The service at old Mutual is utterly useless we were then told to contact head office of which I am currently doing and it's been an hour now. This is not the first time they come up with useless stories not to pay out. In the year 2008 my great grandfather passed away we were given the run around and they still haven't paid out and it's almost a decade. I don't understand why we have to be given the run around if the policy is fully paid. The funeral is on Saturday and I don't see the point in why she had to pay premiums for a policy we thought would be able to assist us in our time of need.