SHE is the single mum who took on one of the big four banks, with the backing of 43,000 people.
Meet Swan Hill’s Rebecca Wolfe, who was battling Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and had just lost her job when she lodged a claim for income protection insurance under her Commonwealth Bank policy a year-and-a-half ago.
Not only was her claim — worth approximately $25,000 — shelved, but her insurance policy cancelled altogether when the bank unearthed a medical document that Ms Wolfe said she knew nothing about.
While most wouldn’t have even thought about taking on the corporate giant, which earlier this year posted a half-year profit of $4.54 billion, Ms Wolfe dug in her heels and hasn’t stopped fighting since.
Ms Wolfe said the saga began in 2012 when she took out an income protection plan with CommInsure with help from a financial planner at CBA’s Swan Hill branch — around the same time the bank was embroiled in a financial planning scandal.
In 2013 she made the claim for $25,000 in insurance protection after the stress of her daughter’s debilitating bone infection and the loss of her job brought on PTSD symptoms.
“I hadn’t been diagnosed [with PTSD], but I knew I was unwell and I couldn’t work,” she said
“The person I spoke to from CommBank first was absolutely wonderful, she said it sounds like you have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, your claim will be accepted and we will just get the paperwork through to you, fill it out and you will start receiving payments.
“A real easy process — it sounded great — and I thought this woman on the phone is helping me even before I can get medical help in Swan Hill.”
In reality it proved to be anything but.
For more on this story, grab a copy of Friday’s Guardian (June 19).
