TO THE BITTER END
sustainable it was.
‘‘If I was sitting in front of her, I would have said, ‘How are you going to keep paying’?’’ he said.
In Australia, a royal commission had found banks hadn’t been servicing customers despite taking ongoing commissions for the services they sold them, he said.
‘‘That’s now illegal.’’
New Zealand had had no royal commission on banking, but McNaughton said of insurance advisers: ‘‘We do have a moral duty to try to keep in touch, and to try to help people.’’
Banks have kept in touch with customers, but it has been up to customers to be proactive in seeking advice from them.
Westpac Life wrote to policyholders such as Earea each year to inform them of premium rises.
‘‘We also ask our customers each year to get in touch to discuss whether their insurance cover is right for their needs,’’ said Jackson.
But after coming under pressure during the Australian royal Commission, Australianowned banks in New Zealand have become far more proactive.
They have invested in systems to proactively identify customers using inappropriate products.
ANZ’s acting chief executive, Antonia Watson, revealed in June how that programme had identified an elderly couple with $200,000 in a savings account, and $80,000 of credit card debt.
Westpac has its own programme called ‘‘Play Back’’, which crunches customer data to spot people who could be doing better with their bank account, credit card, KiwiSaver or home loan.
During the past year Westpac has proactively contacted more than 380,000 customers through Play Back, but it does not cover life insurance policies sold by the bank.
What prompted Earea to go public about her battle with Westpac Life was the way her claim was handled.
She said one Westpac Life staff member even accused her of being a liar when she said she’d never been sent the policy documents for the upgraded policies which Westpac had introduced to replace the one she took out in 1995.
Insurers like Westpac Life can improve policy benefits, but
Earea, who filed every document Westpac Life ever sent her, said she did not receive copies of the replacement policies. One of them introduced the ability to claim if the policyholder contracted a terminal illness that would kill them within 12 months.
Earea also found claims staff brutally direct in the way they asked her how long it would be until she died, and lacking in sympathy.
She has polymyalgia rheumatica, which her doctor described as ‘‘a permanent terminal rheumatic condition without a definite cure’’, causing severe pain and muscle weakness. Those with the condition could become wheelchair-bound, and even blind.
‘‘This disease is horrific. They never ask me how this affects me,’’ she said.
‘‘My muscles become inflamed and I ache 24/7. I need help to get out of a chair or sofa. I can’t sleep at night, the pain is so bad.’’
She was also upset when a claim officer from Westpac Life told her he had checked her transaction account, and found she was in overdraft, and suggested she see a budget adviser.
‘‘I felt totally degraded that he has invaded my privacy, also what a cheek to say I need a budget adviser. I know where every cent of my money goes.’’
Unless Westpac Life and Earea strike a deal, the moneyed insurer will continue to require her to pay premiums, or let the policy lapse, and the struggling but determined 77-year-old will continue to scrape together the money to pay them.
‘‘Our team is in contact with Kathleen and we are continuing to look at how we can support her further,’’ said Jackson.
And, he said: ‘‘We are working with the Banking Ombudsman to seek to address Kathleen’s complaint and have suspended her premiums until this process is complete.’’
Westpac Life’s latest financial statements to the end of September 2018 showed it made an after-tax profit of $51.4 million on $157.7m of premiums paid by its policyholders, paying total claims of $67.7m.
Aside from the profit,
Westpac Life also paid $34m in commissions to Westpac for selling policies to bank customers.
‘This disease is horrific. They never ask me how this affects me. My muscles become inflamed and I ache 24/7. I need help to get out of a chair or sofa. I can’t sleep at night, the pain is so bad.’ KATHLEEN EAREA
AN Auckland boy missed a specialist medical appointment and was left stranded after a bus driver forgot to pick him up.
David Culham, 12, was booked to travel on an InterCity bus from Ruakaka, near Whangarei, to Auckland yesterday morning.
He was tracking the bus on his phone but as it drove toward him, it didn’t stop.
David’s father, Steve Culham, said he received a panicked call from his son at about 9.30am.
‘‘He calls me and said, ‘Dad, the bus just drove past’.’’
David attends school in Whangarei but heads home to Auckland at weekends.
His grandmother dropped him at the bus stop and was still nearby when she saw the bus drive past.
The pair then spent 20 minutes trying to catch up but gave up when it didn’t stop.
‘‘[The bus company] was like nah, nah, that’s against our protocol, we’ve tried to get a hold of the bus driver he’s not answering his phone sorry, there’s nothing we can do,’’ Culham said.
He said the company told him the driver simply forgot to pick up David, who will now have to go back on the waiting list for his specialist appointment in Auckland.
InterCity has procedures in place for children aged between seven and 12 travelling by themselves.
Culham filled out the unaccompanied minor form and received an email from the bus company on Friday night to say it had been approved.
He was not happy with company’s response over the phone and plans to follow up.
‘‘We trust [InterCity] with our children’s safety and they just do not take it seriously.’’
In an email to Culham, seen by Sunday News, an InterCity staff member apologised.
They wrote: ‘‘I am yet to get a hold of the driver so I need to find out exactly what happened and why he left your son behind. I will instruct Intercity to give a full refund and to also send out a voucher for future travel.
‘‘Once I fully understand what has happened we will be retraining the driver and looking at what has failed and fixing that problem. Again I am very sorry for this situation. Thank[s].’’