Insurer refunds Khayelitsha pensioner after we query funeral policy deductions

Pensioner Thelma Nkone said R205 was deducted from her old-age grant every month for seven months for a funeral policy she does not recall signing up for. Photos: Sindisiwe Tshona

• Three Khayelitsha pensioners say they were approached by strangers offering grocery vouchers or business opportunities, only to later discover that money was being deducted from their grants for funeral policies.
• Between R170 and R400 was deducted monthly from their grants.
• 1Life cancelled a pensioner’s policy and refunded her premiums after weeks of inquiries from GroundUp. Clientèle Life says it has also investigated the cases and refunded premiums “where appropriate”.
• The Black Sash says beneficiaries are often left to challenge policies they say they never agreed to. SASSA says insurers must provide evidence that beneficiaries consented.

An insurer has cancelled a funeral policy and refunded a Khayelitsha pensioner after GroundUp questioned deductions from her social grant.

Thelma Nkone, 76, receives an old-age grant of R2,420. She said R205 was deducted from her grant every month from November 2025 to May 2026.

She struggled to establish which company was responsible for the deductions. Eventually, a SASSA branch official told her the policy was with 1Life.

She does not recall agreeing to such a policy.

Nkone supports an unemployed household and already pays for three funeral policies.

She received a refund from 1Life after it cancelled her funeral policy following several queries from GroundUp.

However, 1Life did not respond to GroundUp as to how Nkone’s details were obtained or verified, and what it is doing to prevent unauthorised deductions.

Another pensioner, Nosibongiseni Tsusane, 72, from Khayelitsha Site B, was returning from a clinic earlier this year when a group of women approached her. They offered to help her enter a grocery voucher promotion if she had her Shoprite Xtra Savings card.

“They did not explain anything to me besides requesting an Xtra Savings card,” she said.

Tsusane said the women captured details from her card on a tablet and told her she had “high points”. She said she doesn’t recall signing anything or providing a fingerprint or one-time PIN.

When her next grant payment arrived, R170 had been deducted. After the same amount was deducted the following month, she visited Capitec and learned that Clientèle Life was responsible. The bank could not stop the deductions and referred her to SASSA.

SASSA helped her cancel the policy.

“I couldn’t sleep. I was agitated and felt like I was having seizures,” she said.

The deductions forced her to eke out her money, buying electricity in small amounts, sometimes as little as R20 at a time.

Nomfusi Grace Memani, 63, from Nkanini in Khayelitsha, said she was crocheting at a mall in December 2025 when a man complimented her work. He told her a company was looking for older women who made handmade goods for a business opportunity.

Memani sells her crochet work to supplement her grant and belongs to Grandmothers Against Poverty and AIDS, a group where some women crochet and sell their work.

She gave the man her phone number, photograph and signature, believing she was registering for a business opportunity.

When she found less money in her account than expected, she checked her bank statements and discovered that Clientèle Life had deducted R400.

“I fell on hard times and was unable to pay my burial society contributions because it is the same amount, and I have had this burial society for a long time,” she said.

She went to Nedbank, but the bank could not reverse the deduction and gave her Clientèle Life’s contact details. Outside the bank, she asked two women to help her phone the insurer.

Clientèle Life group compliance officer Marilyn Pillay-Gumbie said the company had investigated each case raised by GroundUp.

“Where we have been able to reach the individuals concerned, we have engaged with them directly and resolved their matters, including cancelling policies and refunding premiums where appropriate,” she said.

Memani received a refund in January. Tsusane says she has not received a refund, but deductions have stopped.

Nomfusi Grace Memani (left) and Nosibongiseni Tsusane say they discovered deductions for funeral policies they do not recall signing up for after being approached with offers of a business opportunity and grocery vouchers.

Pillay-Gumbie said Clientèle had biometric verification and policy-acceptance safeguards in place before activating policies.

But the Black Sash says beneficiaries are often left carrying the burden of challenging policies they say they never agreed to.

Abigail Peters, the organisation’s national researcher and community-based monitoring manager, said beneficiaries are approached through misleading offers.

“The responsibility is put on the beneficiary to be more careful, rather than putting a system in place where they can make sure that beneficiaries, especially the vulnerable, are not targeted,” she said.

SASSA spokesperson Andile Tshona said beneficiaries do not need to prove they did not consent before lodging a complaint. Disputes are referred to the insurer, which must investigate and provide evidence of consent.

SASSA said new mandates for deductions are captured electronically, with facial or fingerprint verification matched against Department of Home Affairs records. But SASSA acknowledged that verifying a person’s identity is “only part of establishing genuine consent”.

Beneficiaries who do not recognise a deduction can send a free SMS to 34548, visit a SASSA office or contact the insurer directly.

How widespread the problem is remains unclear. SASSA said it could not provide a consolidated figure for unauthorised deductions or refunds, as an enquiry or cancellation request does not necessarily mean a deduction was unauthorised.

It said agents implicated in suspected fraud can be blocked and insurers restricted. However, it did not say whether any agents or insurers had been sanctioned in the past year.

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