Banks’ bereavement failings

BANKS are failing bereaved families with unacceptable mistakes and delays, according a study.

Some banks have lost death certificates or failed to close the accounts of people who have died, Which? found.

The pandemic has made problems worse.The consumer group surveyed 1,600 members who had acted as an executor within the past two years.

Some 17 per cent said they had laboured over the process of closing their loved one’s accounts for more than three months before the first lockdown – but that proportion more than doubled to 37 per cent for those who started probate before March 2020 and carried on afterwards.

Only three per cent of people said it was very difficult to contact the provider before the first lockdown, but the figure leapt to 16 per cent for those who settled their loved one’s finances after the lockdowns started.

Which? said dozens of executors revealed that their bank had lost the death certificate after they first registered the death.

The providers with the lowest levels of overall satisfaction among executors were Barclays and HSBC.

Providers with the most satisfied customers during the probate process were Post Office Money, Nationwide and Santander.

Jenny Ross,Which? Money editor, said: “Our research has exposed unacceptable mistakes by banks cropping up again and again during the probate process, leaving bereaved customers even more distressed and potentially out of pocket because of avoidable errors and delays.

“Banks must ensure they treat executors with compassion by communicating sensitively and making sure their processes are as efficient as possible.”

Tips fromWhich? include getting details of loved one’s accounts while they are alive and complaining if things go wrong as you can escalate issues to the Financial Ombudsman.

POLICE have spent almost £8million hiring hundreds of diversity and inclusion employees since 2019.

Forces in England took on 156 people in roles connected to staff diversity in the last two years, according to the TaxPayers’ Alliance.

Job titles included Chief Inspector Positive Action, Equality and Inclusion Adviser plus Ethics Delivery Lead.The final figure is likely to be much higher, as only 27 forces responded to Freedom of Information requests from the pressure group – there are 43 police forces covering areas in England andWales.

West Midlands Police came under fire after advertising three “woke” jobs paying a total of £180,000 a year.

It has already spent more than £340,000 on eight diversity roles since 2019, including a Multi-Faith Lead Chaplain, Positive Action Co-ordinators and a Reasonable Adjustments Officer.The force said:

“We are striving to have a workforce which is representative of the diverse communities we serve.”

Suffolk had the most diversity roles of any force to respond to the campaigners, with a total of 11 such employees at one time.

In neighbouring Norfolk, police chiefs spent more than £385,000 on 10 diversity employees in 2019 – an average salary of £38,500.

Bosses at City of London Police paid one such employee almost £85,000 in 2019 – that is 77 per cent more than the median salary in the capital.

Danielle Boxall, media campaign manager at the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Our boys in blue have once again been caught red-handed dishing out more non-jobs.

“Taxpayers want their hard-earned cash spent on bobbies on the beat, not putting political priorities before policing.

“Police chiefs now need to justify these costs or refocus their funding on the frontline.”