Insurance company 1Life has cancelled a funeral policy and refunded a 76-year-old Khayelitsha pensioner. This came after GroundUp asked questions about deductions taken from her social grant.
Thelma Nkone receives an old-age grant of R2,420 a month. She said R205 was taken from her grant every month from November 2025 to May 2026.
Nkone said she does not remember agreeing to the policy. She struggled to find out which company was taking the money. In the end, an official at a SASSA branch told her the policy was with 1Life.
She supports a household where no one has a job. She already pays for three other funeral policies.
1Life refunded her after GroundUp sent several queries. The company did not tell GroundUp how it got or checked Nkone’s details. It also did not say what it is doing to stop unauthorised deductions.
Other pensioners in Khayelitsha told GroundUp similar stories involving a different insurer, Clientèle Life.
Nosibongiseni Tsusane, 72, from Site B, said a group of women stopped her as she came back from a clinic earlier this year. They offered to enter her into a grocery voucher promotion if she had a Shoprite Xtra Savings card.
“They did not explain anything to me besides requesting an Xtra Savings card,” she said.
Tsusane said the women typed her card details into a tablet. She said she does not remember signing anything or giving a fingerprint or a one-time PIN.
Her next grant payment was R170 short. After the same amount was taken the next month, she went to Capitec. The bank told her Clientèle Life was behind the deductions, but it could not stop them. It sent her to SASSA.
“I couldn’t sleep. I was agitated and felt like I was having seizures,” she said. She said she had to buy electricity in small amounts, sometimes only R20 at a time.
Nomfusi Grace Memani, 63, from Nkanini, said a man praised her crochet work at a mall in December 2025. He told her a company wanted older women who make handmade goods for a business opportunity.
She gave him her phone number, a photo and her signature. She later found that Clientèle Life had taken R400 from her account. Nedbank could not reverse the deduction.
“I fell on hard times and was unable to pay my burial society contributions because it is the same amount,” she said.
Clientèle Life group compliance officer Marilyn Pillay-Gumbie said the company looked into each case GroundUp raised. She said it had cancelled policies and refunded premiums “where appropriate” when it could reach the people involved.
Memani got a refund in January. Tsusane said she has not been refunded, but the deductions have stopped. Pillay-Gumbie said the company uses biometric checks and policy acceptance steps before a policy starts.
Abigail Peters of the Black Sash said grant holders are drawn in through misleading offers. “The responsibility is put on the beneficiary to be more careful,” she said.
SASSA spokesperson Andile Tshona said grant holders do not have to prove they did not agree before they complain. The insurer must investigate and show proof of consent.
SASSA said new deductions are checked with a face or fingerprint scan against Home Affairs records. It said checking a person’s identity is “only part of establishing genuine consent”.
SASSA said it could not give a total figure for unauthorised deductions or refunds. Grant holders who do not recognise a deduction can send a free SMS to 34548, visit a SASSA office or contact the insurer.
Source: this article is based on reporting by GroundUp. Image: GroundUp. Written with the help of AI and published by the Tzaneen Voice News desk. See our Editorial Standards.
Kgomotso Maake covers news and politics for Tzaneen Voice. Kgomotso reports on government, Parliament, municipalities, courts, crime and service delivery across South Africa, with a close eye on how national decisions reach towns like Tzaneen and the wider Limpopo province. Stories are written in plain English and focus on the facts: who made the decision, what it means, and what happens next.