Pension Provider Writes Woman Telling Her That She Is Dead

A pension provider in the UK informed their Lincolnshire-based client that she was dead via mail. The news comes by way of the Lincolnshire Echo.

According to the pensioner (retiree) Mrs. B. Fulton, she received quite the shock when she headed out to her mailbox last month.

More from the Echo report:

“The letter was sent to the 80-year-old’s home last month and addressed to the executors of Mrs. B. Fulton.

“The pensioner was described as being ‘extremely upset,’ but Standard Life have since apologised for the mistake, blaming it on human error.

“‘You can imagine how shocked I was to receive the letter,’ Mrs Fulton told the Telegraph. ‘Fortunately I still have my wits about me, but I dread to think what the consequences could have been for someone in more fragile health than myself.'”

Naturally, the pension provider was mortified by the error, explaining that “a routine pension payment failed and a staff member had incorrectly marked the reason for the payment being returned as ‘deceased.'”

In comments to The Telegraph, Standard Life explained its next steps.

“We are very sorry this occurred and for the concern it has caused. We apologized immediately and carried out a review to understand what had happened. We reissued the pension payment immediately and sent Mrs Fulton flowers and £50 as apology too.”

(That’s around $83.)

While it would be sort of harrowing to get a condolence letter concerning your own as-yet-to-happen death, Standard Life did the right thing by reaching out to Fulton and eating some humble pie.

Too often, a pension provider or an insurance company or any financial institution would want to sweep these embarrassing mistakes under the rug, so it’s refreshing to see a company that owns it and then goes beyond the call of duty in the way that Standard Life did.

Of course, The Telegraph did have to rattle their cage for a statement — I mean, you won’t find any evidence of this occurring in the News and Views section on the company website — but we suppose everyone is entitled to a little mistake now and then.

So what say you, readers? If your pension provider or insurer contacted you about your early dismissal, would it freak you out? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section, and while you’re at it, share your biggest foot-in-mouth moments if you’d like.

[Image via ShutterStock]