Death delays ‘unacceptable’
Grieving relatives hit with big funeral bills as ANZ fails to cope with death rate, writes Tom Pullar-Strecker.
BEREAVED families are facing bills of thousands of dollars to pay for the funerals of loved ones, because of a hold-up at the country’s largest bank.
ANZ bank has been playing an apology on its 0800 helpline for deceased estates, saying it is taking up to 30 working days to process requests to release money from the accounts of people who have died because of ‘‘high volumes’’.
The delay didn’t impress Palmerston North academic Cory Matthew, who said he waited nearly two months for assistance from ANZ to wind up his mother’s affairs after her death in August.
Matthew said ANZ’s issues meant he had to pay funeral costs of $8500 out of his own pocket to avoid a late payment fee.
That was despite a recorded message on ANZ’s 0800 deceased estates number that funeral payments would be paid on or before the due date.
‘‘I did happen to have that sitting around, but it is more I don’t think it is very professional of them,’’ Matthew said.
He assumed hundreds of others would be in the same boat.
Matthew had obtained probate from Hamilton High Court following his mother’s death two months ago, but his lawyers were unable to do anything until Wednesday because of the delays at the bank, he said.
A spokeswoman for the Public Trust said the organisation, which helps people sort out their affairs after death, had also been affected by the problem at ANZ.
‘‘We can confirm that we have been experiencing some delays with ANZ. We understand there are steps being taken to improve processing times, and these are primarily due to resourcing issues and system changes.’’
Statistics New Zealand spokesman James Weir said deaths tended to spike in the September quarter, and the number of people dying each year was increasing as the country’s population grew and aged.
But the department didn’t have recent statistics that might show if there had been an unusual number of bank customers dying in the past few months that would explain ANZ’s ‘‘high volumes’’.
Matthew’s mother had spent most of her career working with ANZ.
‘‘During the war when there was threat of a Japanese invasion she was employed in Stratford, and her job was to ride on the lorry with the bank securities and she had a Molotov cocktail to destroy the banknotes so the Japanese wouldn’t get them.
‘‘She’d be a bit shocked to find they couldn’t sort things out after she was gone,’’ Matthew said.
ANZ contacted his lawyers and sent them the forms they needed on Wednesday.
ANZ spokesman Stefan Herrick acknowledged the delays were ‘‘unacceptable’’ but said the bank was getting on top of its backlog. ‘‘We have put in extra resource and new processes. I think in a few weeks things should hopefully be pretty much back to normal.’’