Consumer rights abuse and swindling clients of their money

Sanlam Corporate claims department is refusing to release my mother’s pension funds despite the fact that the forms have been completed and signed by both my mother and her ex-employer. The company was happy to receive monthly contributions from my mother’s employer for years yet, when she tries to claim the funds they are ducking and diving. We went to their offices on 20/02/2024 and we have not received any communication from them. Since my mother is very ill and needs the funds urgently, she asked me to go to the Sanlam Houghton offices to follow-up on the claim request. The consultant was very helpful and quickly called the claims calls center, where Fana a call center consultant said that Sanlam will NOT process the claim as it was not coming directly from the employer, even though he was made aware of my mother’s ill-health and situation with her ex-employer on 20/02/24. In addition, I would like to stress that the claim came directly from the Sanlam Houghton offices and the form was signed by both my mother and her ex-employer.

I fail to understand why a huge corporate like Sanlam would fail to communicate with its clients about whatever information is required for the claim process to be smooth and efficient. If I hadn’t come to the Sanlam Houghton offices, when was Sanlam going to contact my mom about her pending claim? Or are they attempting to make this process as painful and tedious as they possibly can? Should my mom die because of Sanlam’s inertia in dealing with the matter appropriately, I will take this information to ALL social media platforms so that people are aware that Sanlam is not about empowering South African’s as it likes to portray itself. Instead it is about abusing consumers and swindling them of their money.