"It's an equitable life, Henry." But sadly not for some.
I've been meaning to write on the plight of Equitable Life policy holders for a while. It's an issue which I have spoken on in the House before and one that I have campaigned for fairness on. A letter today from another constituent who's a policyholder seeking fair compensation prompted me to get on and post something here about it.
I'm sure that some of you will be familiar with the Equitable Life scandal so I won't go into too much detail, only to say that as far back as the 1950s, the company started offering pension plans promising a minimum income when people retired; when these guarantees became too expensive, the company reneged on the promises it made.
I know there is a great deal of criticism with how the Labour Government handled the investigations into whether regulatory bodies, including the Financial Services Authority, had failed to do their job properly. The parliamentary ombudsman only concluded that the regulatory bodies had failed in 2009 so compensation was delayed.
The former Treasury team can apologise until they're blue in the face for both the failure of regulation of Equitable Life between 1990 and 2001, and for the way the matter was handled after this period, but the real issue here is about getting fair compensation for those who were affected by it all, and soon.
During their time in opposition, the parties that now make up the Coalition Government promised a great deal to the Equitable Life policyholders, in essence stating that they would have handled the matter completely differently to Labour; paid out much more than Labour ever would have in compensation; and done it quicker.
However, now that they're in Government, things are looking very different. Firstly they delayed a discussion on the topic for two months. More importantly, however, although they once claimed they would pay the full losses, estimated to be around £4.7 billion, the Conservative/LibDem Government is now saying they may only pay as little as £400 million (£500 million at best) shared between 1.5 million policyholders (that works out at about £266 each), and on top of that, they are likely to tax the payments. This has all been branded as "unsafe" and "unsound" by the Parliamentary Ombudsman and comes as a severe blow to the many Equitable Life policyholders waiting for justice.
I am sure I will be receiving a considerable number more letters from dissatisfied Equitable Life policyholders on this and I'll be watching with interest as things move forward in September.
I'm sure that some of you will be familiar with the Equitable Life scandal so I won't go into too much detail, only to say that as far back as the 1950s, the company started offering pension plans promising a minimum income when people retired; when these guarantees became too expensive, the company reneged on the promises it made.
I know there is a great deal of criticism with how the Labour Government handled the investigations into whether regulatory bodies, including the Financial Services Authority, had failed to do their job properly. The parliamentary ombudsman only concluded that the regulatory bodies had failed in 2009 so compensation was delayed.
The former Treasury team can apologise until they're blue in the face for both the failure of regulation of Equitable Life between 1990 and 2001, and for the way the matter was handled after this period, but the real issue here is about getting fair compensation for those who were affected by it all, and soon.
During their time in opposition, the parties that now make up the Coalition Government promised a great deal to the Equitable Life policyholders, in essence stating that they would have handled the matter completely differently to Labour; paid out much more than Labour ever would have in compensation; and done it quicker.
However, now that they're in Government, things are looking very different. Firstly they delayed a discussion on the topic for two months. More importantly, however, although they once claimed they would pay the full losses, estimated to be around £4.7 billion, the Conservative/LibDem Government is now saying they may only pay as little as £400 million (£500 million at best) shared between 1.5 million policyholders (that works out at about £266 each), and on top of that, they are likely to tax the payments. This has all been branded as "unsafe" and "unsound" by the Parliamentary Ombudsman and comes as a severe blow to the many Equitable Life policyholders waiting for justice.
I am sure I will be receiving a considerable number more letters from dissatisfied Equitable Life policyholders on this and I'll be watching with interest as things move forward in September.