Why can’t I cash my postal order?

In May 2016 my mum purchased a £100 postal order for me. It got mislaid while I was moving. Having now found the postal order, I submitted

in a small bungalow, which he did not own, and I was his carer.

When I came to sort out his affairs it transpired that his gas and electric account was £491.52 in credit.

Ovo Energy sent me a cheque made out to “The executor of MH”. It will not send a cheque to me personally unless I can show a copy of the grant of representation as the refund is larger than £200.

My brother did not leave a will and I did not have to seek grant of probate. His bank paid out a sum far larger than Ovo’s purely on sight of the death certificate and proof of who I was.

The bank refused to open a special account for this cheque. PH, WEST MIDLANDS a claim to the Post Office. It replied that as the stipulated time limit is long past I am not entitled to the money. I consider the £100 belongs to me. Why should the Post Office be able to keep it when I have to live on just over £60 per week? NICOLA MARTIN, CO FERMANAGH

I spoke to Ovo, which said a grant of representation document was requested in this instance because of the large credit balance left on the account.

It points out that government guidelines allow organisations to request a grant of representation before making a payment. It is Ovo’s policy to require evidence of probate for such small sums, to protect the deceased party’s money against fraudulent claims. Ovo will continue to review this policy to ensure it remains appropriate.

Further to my involvement, given the circumstances of your situation and the detail you provided, Ovo has now made an exception. It In fact the postal order was bought in May 2017.

I acquired more detail from you and spoke to the Post Office. Their spokesman said: “We work very hard to offer our customers the highest levels of service and we are extremely sorry that on this occasion we did not do so.

says this is being done in good faith that, should any other entitled parties come forward, you will settle any disputes in line with the wishes of your late brother.

A refund cheque made out to you has accordingly been issued. Having investigated, we agree that Ms Martin should receive a refund, given she was able to provide the original postal order, and we have apologised that this was not offered in the first instance.

“Postal orders are valid for six months from the original purchase date and following that they are reviewed on a case-by-case basis before they can be cashed in. The time that has passed since expiration is one factor that we take into consideration.

“Once again we’re very sorry for the miscommunication surrounding Ms Martin’s postal order.”

As well as refunding the full amount, it has also sent you £30 for goodwill to apologise for the confusion and concern this has caused.

You have now received this and said that this enabled you to have a much better Christmas.

Such uncollected sums are kept as a liability on the Post Office’s balance sheets. The vast amount of postal orders, I understand, are cashed in good time. company and then it was to refuse the £451 claim.

Unfortunately you could not find the original insurance certificate but you had proof that you had indeed been insured by Allianz Insurance.

Further to my contacting Allianz Insurance it came back saying that, because of an administrative error on its part, unknown to you, your first policy had lapsed. A second policy had then been issued with a different policy number, which again you knew nothing about.

It quickly apologised and dealt with this saying the administrative error had been entirely its fault. It said this kind of incident was extremely rare but it would explore the process to make sure it did not happen to anyone else.

On further reflection, Allianz Insurance came back with rather different information. Now it said: “This problem originates from the transfer of the policy from one broker to another and the use of incorrect policy numbers.

“This meant we could not trace the policy on our system although the customer was fully insured.

“We are sorry for the administrative issues that led to the bill for the repair of the windscreen being sent direct to the customer and for the time it took for the cause of the problem to be identified and dealt with.

“We are pleased to say this matter has been settled and we have paid the repairers for the windscreen damage claim.”

Whatever the whys and wherefores, none of this was your fault and Allianz Insurance has also, in view of the inconvenience, made an ex gratia payment of £150. This you are giving to charity.