Rebecca Stadham signed up for funeral insurance through the Aboriginal Community Benefit Fund (ACBF) in 1994.
They were door-knocking in her community of Bowraville that year, and Ms Stadham thought she was doing what was best for the family by joining.
At the time, Bowraville was still reeling from the murders of three - one of them Ms Stadham’s daughter Evelyn Greenup.
“I signed up when I lost my daughter, they came in after that and that’s when I signed up,” she said.
“My kids won’t be able to pay for my funeral so that’s why I joined these people, to make sure I was covered to be buried.”
A few years ago Ms Stadham called the ACBF, and asked if she could pause her payments while she saved for a new washing machine.
Rebecca Stadham (second from right) meets with other women in Bowraville who are customers of the ACBF. Source: NITV The Point
She said after about a month she received a letter to say she was no longer covered.
“I rang them up and I asked them why have I been cut off,” she said.
“They said it’s because you missed a couple of payments and I said I’d rang them up and told them I was saving for a washing machine.”
When Ms Stadham asked to speak to an Aboriginal worker she was told there were none.
She said she felt angry and betrayed, realising it was not an Aboriginal-owned company as she thought, and that she was no longer covered for her funeral expenses.
“It just makes you sad,” she said.
“It makes you wild because all those years doing the funeral fund and they just want to treat us like dirt.”
Solicitor Mark Holden says many people didn't realise what they were signing up for when they joined ACBF. Source: NITV News
'Junk insurance'
But Ms Stadham is not alone, she said most people in Bowraville have signed up to ACBF insurance,
Solicitor Mark Holden works at the Financial Rights Legal Centre’s Mob Strong program.
Mr Holden said he’s working with dozens of clients like Ms Stadham who want their money back from ACBF.
“People have complained to us that they were misled by ACBF in being Aboriginal-owned when at the time they were not,” he said.
“It was also not properly explained what they were signing up for… a lot of people thought this was a savings fund, they thought that you could pay into it and take back what you paid but this is actually an insurance product.
“it’s a funeral insurance product so what that means is as soon as you pay your premium, that premium is no longer yours, it belongs to a trust fund so a lot of people will only be able to claim when they pass away.
“That’s the problem with funeral insurance, it’s junk insurance, it’s got a very high rate of cancellation, there’s a good chance you’ll pay more than what the benefit is worth.”
The Aboriginal Community Benefit Fund is now owned by Queensland-based company, Youpla.
In the financial year to June 2021 the Australian Financial Complaints Authority received 125 complaints about ACBF entities.
They’ve previously found the insurer’s conduct to be “misleading, deceptive and unconscionable”.
'Lose the benefits'
In November 2021, one of the three funds run by Youpla, called Fund 2, was put into administration.
This is a huge concern for Mark Holden and his clients. He’s called for the federal government to step in to make sure policy holders aren’t left out of pocket if the fund can’t meet their financial commitments.
“If this company were to go under then all our fund 2 complainants will lose their right to be able to to be able to claim their refund,” he said.
“They will lose their benefits too so we’re very worried about it.
“The financial services royal commission had exposed the conduct of ACBF and ACBF has been the target of investigations over the past decade too.
“For fund 2 to be able to go under because they can’t meet their commitments it really does fly in the face of the royal commission’s findings too and it is a shame.”
But it’s not just those who’ve bought the insurance who’ve said they feel deceived.
Natalie Hunter worked for ACBF for more than a year in the early 2000s.
She said she believed she was helping people when she signed them up for funeral insurance and even joined the fund herself.
Natalie Hunter worked for the ACBF for more than a year. Source: NITV The Point
“I must have worked for them for just over a year and a bit and I travelled across the region marketing that policy,” she said.
“I took it out to Borroloola, I took it to other remote communities and I took it across the Kimberley, which was my family.”
“The reasons I got into the funeral industry was because I lost children myself, I’d lost loved ones -my brothers - and thought funerals cost a lot of money when you experience it
“I thought it was fantastic to have a funeral fund for people on a low income.”
Ms Hunter said she didn’t realise the company wasn’t Aboriginal-owned until the Banking Royal Commission in 2018 and wants the company held accountable.
“I just hope that something is done about it immediately,” she said.
“Why are they continuing to take people’s money out of their account?
“Those people that were directors of the company, they should be blacklisted in some way because it’s just deceit and ripping people off, especially Aboriginal people that are vulnerable people.”
Rebecca Stadham said it's time to make things right.
“They need to fork out and pay people, give the money back that they’ve taken from them,” she said.
Tune in for more on this story on NITV's flagship current affairs program The Point, Tuesday 7.30pm on NITV and 11.00pm on SBS.
