Further delay for Equitable Life policyholders

by Gill Montia

Story link: Further delay for Equitable Life policyholders

The Government has once again disappointed Equitable Life policyholders by delaying its response to a report by the Parliamentary Ombudsman, Ann Abraham, for a further month.

In 2000, over one million investors in the UK’s oldest mutual insurance company lost up to 50% of the value of their pension funds when Equitable Life came close to collapse because it could not deliver the returns it had promised to policyholders.

A comprehensive report on the matter, published in July, accused regulators of comprehensive failures and the Government of maladministration.

It also recommended that a scheme be established to consider individual claims for compensation.

The Government’s response has already been delayed since the autumn and can now be expected some time after Christmas.

According to reports in the press, over 2,000 Equitable Life policyholders have died since the Ombudsman’s findings were published in the summer.

In related news, the Accountancy and Actuarial Discipline Board is in the process of investigating the way in which government actuaries advised the regulators of the insurer.

The board will focus its enquiries on the advice given by the Government Actuary’s Department between December 1990 and April 2001.