An 80-year-old widow received a letter pronouncing her dead after her pension
provider made a "clerical error".
Standard Life sent the letter (pictured below) directly to the customer's
house in Spalding, Lincolnshire, last month.
Mrs Fulton, whose name has been altered, opened the letter because it was
addressed to "The Executors of Mrs B Fulton".
She found a short message of condolence from an employee at Standard Life,
which read: "I was sorry to learn of [Mrs Fulton's] death when the bank
returned her June pension instalment to us. I offer my sincere condolences
on behalf of Standard Life.
"Please can you contact me with the date that Mrs Fulton passed away."
Enclosed was a prepaid envelope and a telephone number.
Mrs Fulton, who was described as frail by neighbours acting on her behalf,
said she was left "extremely upset". The widow suffered a severe
stroke almost a decade ago and lived alone.
"You can imagine how shocked I was to receive the letter," Mrs
Fulton said. "Fortunately I still have my wits about me, but I dread to
think what the consequences could have been for someone in more fragile
health than myself."
Standard Life said the blunder was caused by human error after a routine
pension payment failed. A staff member had incorrectly marked reason for the
payment being returned as “deceased”.
A spokesman said: "We are very sorry this occurred and for the concern it
has caused. We apologised immediately and carried out a review to understand
what had happened. We reissued the pension payment immediately and sent Mrs
Fulton flowers and £50 as apology too."
The reason for the failed payment remains a mystery, the spokesman said. Mrs
Felton had received regular, automated transfers to her bank account for
many years without a hitch.
The case is the latest embarrassing blunder made by financial firms'
bereavement departments. Companies have in the past been criticised for a
lack of tact around death and failing to carry out basic checks before
sending letters. Here are two other examples.
Woman made to feel like a murderer
In November 2012, a grieving woman was sent a letter by an insurer which made
her feel like a murder suspect. Sun Life Financial of Canada refused to pay
Belinda Wells, 53, money inherited from the estate of her late fiancé, had
died suddenly after a nursing accident in hospital.
The firm said it couldn’t pay because "UK law prohibits us from
paying any monies to a person that may have committed a crime from which
they may profit."
The letter,
reported
by the Daily Mail, also said the firm had asked the police to see
whether they "are looking into the death as a possible crime".
There was never any suggestion Ms Wells had been involved in her fiance's
death. A nurse was later suspended after an inquest heard that Ms Well's
fiancé, Paul Coventry died after being given the wrong saline solution. The
coroner's verdict was accidental death contributed to by neglect.
Sun Life apologised profusely to Ms Wells, offered £250 compensation and
promised to review its procedures.
'Computer says you’re dead'
In another case, a 52-year-old with a serious illness said he ran up thousands
of pounds in bank charges because a credit reference agency listed him as
deceased.
In December 2012, Fred Banagan
told
the Mail on Sunday that he had tried three times to correct the
error on his credit file, run by Equifax, which listed him as dead since
2007.
"It’s like the character in Little Britain who taps away at her keyboard
and then says, ‘‘Computer says no", except in my case it’s,
‘‘Computer says you’re dead,’ he said. "I could
do nothing about it. And this was real life, not a comedy."
It transpired that the incorrect information was originating from Virgin,
which whom Mr Banagan had signed a contract in 2007. Virgin had listed him
as dead, despite taking money from his account each month.
Both Experian and Virgin apologised for the error and promised to improve
their systems and processes.
Culled from Daily Telegraph
