One Life Funeral Planning fallout is a scandal, buyers should get money back, says JEFF PRESTRIDGE
While the funeral plans market is now regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority – and clients’ plans are supported by the safety net that is the Financial Compensation Scheme – the fallout from what happened before (reminiscent of the Wild West) continues.
Nowhere has this outage been more spectacularly disastrous in terms of client outcomes than at One Life Funeral Planning in Sheffield (Safe Hands Plans comes a close second).
One Life went into receivership late last year after failing to assure the FCA that it was robust enough to become a regulated provider of funeral plans.
The plans that One Life customers have purchased to cover the cost of their funeral are worthless
Stopped by the FCA from selling new plans, and unable to find a rival to take over, One Life raised the white flag leaving 13,700 customers (most of them elderly) in limbo.
While the administrators have just refunded all customer direct debits since One Life went bankrupt, that’s the end of the good news. In short, the plans customers have purchased to cover the cost of their funeral are worthless – void.
So no funeral will be provided by One Life, as promised when customers signed up for the deal – and there will be no more refunds of payments made.
It’s an outrageous turn of events, because one of the comfort blankets thrown to customers by One Life was that subscription payments in our [One Life’s] secure, independently managed One Life trust fund, so come what may, your money is protected.”
Clearly, that promise has vanished without a trace in the murky waters of the River Don.
In May of this year, the trustees reported that £1.5 million of plan holder money was in custody. But the latest message says there are now “no funds available in the trust to pay a refund in respect of amounts paid by plan holders prior to November 2, 2022.”
It appears that the money has been swallowed up by a combination of running costs and paying off corporate debt.
James Daley, founder of consumer website Fairer Finance, is shocked by what has happened. He has set up a Facebook page called One Life Funeral Plan Victims to reach out to those involved in the company’s demise.
He says customers who paid for their plans with a credit or debit card should try to get their money back by filing a Section 75 or chargeback claim with their card issuer and bank, respectively.
He also believes the Treasury has a case to answer for failing to properly audit the trust funds that have looted the likes of Safe Hands and One Life.
Until the consumer harm caused by One Life and Safe Hands is addressed by the regulator or government, bad smell will dominate the prepaid funeral plan market.