Standard Bank Retrenchment Policy - not worth the paper it is written on

I took out a Standard Bank retrenchment policy about three years ago, and when I was retrenched in Jan 2020 this year I submitted a claim in April 2020 which should have started paying out on 1 May 2020 because there is a 3 months waiting period.

Well - that did not quite work out. It took 4 months for them to approve my claim, but they have only paid out part claim for May 2020 so far, nothing for June 2020, nothing for July 2020 and nothing for August 2020. When I got fed up with the lack of feedback I escalated the matter to their complaints department, only to be told by their complaints lady that she did not know all their products but she would follow up with the claims department.

Its been 7 months since my retrenchment, and given that there is a 3 months waiting period, it is now over 4 months waiting for payment. No feedback to my latest emails from either, and the worst is they kept deducting my premiums of over R2000 per months while this is going on. What cover were they providing? When I asked the claims lady why they were still deducting my premiums her answer was I did not instruct them to stop the premiums!

To compare this to Old Mutual. Old Mutual processed my application in one month, paid out all arrear benefits in one month, reversed all premiums since my retrenchment, kept me informed, apologised for their delay, and continued to pay all benefits as per their policy document. An absolute pleasure.

Standard Bank have provided absolutely shocking service, have come up with restrictions on my benefits that were never included in my policy document, and in 4 months only paid out one benefit, but that at only 1/3 of what the policy stated. Absolutely shocking.