VICTORIA BISCHOFF: Betrayal of the bereaved

Over the past few chaotic months, banks, insurers and utility providers have rightly prioritised customers most in need of urgent financial help.

But that has led to others falling by the wayside, including the recently bereaved.

It is painfully evident that it’s never been more vital for firms to have a fully staffed, thoroughly trained specialist bereavement team. 

Grieving customers are often put through the mill because staff have not been taught the right basic processes

Yet shortages due to sickness and social distancing means this has not always been the case.

As a result, grieving customers are often put through the mill because staff have not been taught the right basic processes. 

And while an occasional administration error is inevitable, a lack of humanity is never acceptable.

Today we report how one Money Mail reader was let down at almost every turn by HSBC after his wife died — with someone even insensitively insinuating that he could have been using an old will to cash in on what was not rightfully his. 

This is the third time our letters editor Tony Hazell has been forced to intervene on behalf of bereaved readers since March.

Only last month, he exposed how Barclays had left a customer waiting six weeks for access to his deceased mother-in-law’s account, which he needed to pay bills.

And in March Tony told how Halifax had blocked a distressed son from closing his late mother’s savings account.

But it’s not just the banks letting customers down. Money Mail reader Susan Goodhew says her energy supplier addressed letters and emails to her late husband, despite previously acknowledging his death. 

Three months after his passing, she is also still unable to access their account online.

It has been five years since Money Mail launched its Looking After Your Legacy campaign, demanding better treatment for the bereaved. 

As part of this, we called for a one‑stop death notification service, which was launched almost two years ago this week.

Yet so far, only a handful of firms, including most major banks, have signed up — despite promises that energy firms, insurers and telecoms giants would follow suit.

An average family deals with 12 accounts on behalf of a loved one when they die, according to Co-op research. 

There is no doubt that being able to close all these accounts in one go would help make an impossibly difficult and distressing job just a little easier to bear. So what’s the hold-up?

Fraud farrago

Money Mail often warns of how easy it is for fraudsters to make it look as though they are calling from another number — a tactic known as ‘spoofing’. So it is mind-boggling the NHS made its new Test and Trace number public.

As we expose, it took our investigations team less than a minute to clone the supposedly official number and make the NHS number flash up instead of their own.

Even worse, households cannot even ring the real NHS number back to verify the caller as it does not accept incoming calls.

This flies in the face of all basic fraud protection advice. You should never give out personal details to cold callers without first checking they definitely are who they say they are.

Unsurprisingly, reports of scammers impersonating the service are coming in thick and fast. In one example, victims are asked for their debit card details to pay £50 for a Covid test kit. They are told that refusing to do so is a criminal offence.

This is utter nonsense. The real Test and Trace service will never ask for your bank details, card number or Pin — so just hang up.

Winning streak

When I won a £25 Premium Bond prize a couple of months ago, I squealed with excitement.

I think it was the first time I’ve won anything since I bagged a Pudsey bear in a raffle at school.

But before you feel too sorry for me, it’s probably because I rarely, if ever, enter any competitions or prize draws.

Well, after hearing all about Kirsty Connor’s free holiday to Majorca for 100 people, worth an incredible £500,000, that could now all be about to change.

What’s the best prize you’ve ever won, and how? Write to me at the email address below.

[email protected]

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