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Last year there was a big fuss when funeral insurer Yarden suddenly downgraded the rights of its package policyholders. On Friday, a number of policyholders started summary proceedings to undo the policy change. Mobility in funeral transport such as the funeral car or the support cars for the family can suddenly turn out to be a lot more expensive than expected.

The funeral company of Yarden takes care of the funerals and cremations of its package policyholders. The case is about the old package policies that cover a complete funeral or cremation. Yarden wants to write off and freeze the policy rights by 2020. 

According to the calculation tool on the website of funeral insurer Yarden, a funeral quickly costs € 10.000. Halfway through last year, Yarden informed 390.000 policyholders that it can no longer meet its obligations. Surviving relatives are now allowed to put together an average package of € 2.800 and have to pay the rest to Yarden. 

Yarden indicates that it may adjust the policies on the basis of an en bloc clause, which gives the insurer the right to adjust an entire group of policies at once. The policyholders have doubts about the fairness of the clause and do not agree with it. Furthermore, the policyholders hope for more clarification as to why the change was prompted by financial problems. 

In 2007, the Ombudsman stopped the same policy change and at the beginning of this year the Consumers' Association also ordered Yarden to reverse the austerity of package insurance. However, according to Yarden, the adjustment is still in effect. 

Vereniging Sociale Verhaal (Association Social Story), an association of volunteers who, among other things, works selflessly for duped Yarden policyholders, has engaged lawyers to issue a summons. 

Mandy Lubach, board member of the Social Story association, says that older policyholders with a low income are particularly concerned at the moment. "There are many poignant cases among people of eighty or ninety who are afraid that they will saddle their next of kin with a major problem." However, it is not only the elderly who are concerned that their funeral will not be paid, but there are also children who really do not know how to knit it around when one of their parents dies.

Also read: DELA cooperative takes over ailing Yarden

Funeral car
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