Refusal to repair car - wanting to write it off

My mother's car was involved in an accident and had damage to the left front axel and front of the car. After Outsurance sent it to the assessor, they came back to us 5 days later to say that they had decided to write off the car because the repairs would cost R25 155.53. They said that they would pay out my mother R69 000. My mother is 78 years old and cannot afford to buy another car with the amount offered by Outsurance. We emailed and phoned several times, never receiving a reply - to say that we found this unacceptable and wanted to have the car repaired - which we didn't think was an overly large amount, considering the premiums have been paid and no claims have been made. Eventually after a great deal of phoning, messages and emails, Lwethu came back to me and said that as a special concession they would pay us out R22 613, but they would not repair the car. This seems incredibly mean-spirited and small minded - when they were prepared to pay out R69000 to write off the car, but not another R2 542.53 to repair the car. Why does one pay for insurance and get this level of poor service?