I’m so happy to have won back £1m for our readers
Our consumer champion, Katie Morley, looks back on a very successful year
The presents have been opened, but there is one last gift that I need to tell you about. My column, Katie Morley Investigates, which looks into the times you have been treated unfairly or lost money, has just hit a milestone. More than £1million has been won back for you, our loyal readers.
In May, I was appointed as your consumer champion, and what a journey this past seven months has been. I have argued with companies until I’m blue in the face, spent months collecting evidence, and even stepped in when the police refused to investigate criminals. Believe me when I say, recovering life-changing sums hasn’t always been easy.
The first case I took on involved harrowing abuse of a care home resident. Betty, 95, had suffered verbal and physical abuse at the hands of her carers. Soap was forced into her mouth by one staff member, who called her a “minger” and “horrible”. After months of back and forth, I secured a £101,500 payout for her family to refund part of her fees and to say sorry for her suffering.
But by far the biggest single issue that I’ve had to tackle is fraud. Folk falling for scams has truly become a national crisis. As fraudsters become increasingly sophisticated, I have watched in horror as banks relinquish all responsibility and fail so many victims.
I recovered £25,000 for a reader in Milton Keynes and £49,000 for another in London, both Metrobank customers who were taken in by sophisticated scams. Both cases involved fraudsters impersonating the bank’s fraud department. Mentally, the victims suffered terribly as a result of their fraud, and I worried about them at night in the quiet moments before sleep. It was a weight off my mind when they were both reimbursed as a result of me lobbying the bank.
Another huge problem is that insurers are still living up to their reputation for not paying when they should. Payouts from insurance companies made up at least a third of the first £1 million my column retrieved. The biggest win was for a reader in Hertfordshire whose mother’s St James’s Place (SJP) life insurance premiums had gone up from £300 to £20,000 a year because the level of cover had become so expensive to maintain. It was utterly ludicrous. Following my involvement, SJP agreed to let her keep the £250,000 payout on
‘I’ve had everything from silent disbelief, sobbing, and even a declaration of love’
death she was supposed to have, while paying no more yearly premiums. This left her £200,000 better off than if she had chosen to cancel the policy by stopping the yearly sums, in which case she would have received just £50,000.
Then, in November, I saved a couple in Manchester a killer £58,000 hospital bill that Axa had refused to pay due to the non-disclosure of an achy knee. Without my help in proving the woman’s osteoarthritis was totally irrelevant to the claim, their retirement plans were set to be wrecked. One of the loveliest things about this job is delivering good news to readers. When phoning to tell them I’ve won them back a fivefigure sum, or cancelled a six-figure bill, their reactions are priceless. I’ve had everything from silent disbelief, sobbing, and even a declaration of love. I’ve also been bowled over by their kindness. Collectively they’ve donated over £1,000 of the money I’ve won back for them to charity.
But of all the cases I’ve solved the one that really sticks in my mind the most was that of KF of Manchester, a widow on the brink of losing her home after her late husband’s life insurance wouldn’t pay out as it had been mis-sold. She was disabled, living off benefits and unable to afford the mortgage. Recognising her desperation, I threw my soul into solving her case.
The company which mis-sold her the insurance had gone out of business, leaving KF at a dead end. After a stressful few weeks, Reassure, which administers the policy, heroically came to the rescue by giving her £38,000 so she could pay off her mortgage, even though it wasn’t directly to blame. Dozens of you told me KF’S story moved you to tears, and I think something must have got caught in my eye as well.
Read Katie Morley Investigates in our Money sections on Saturday and Sunday