Parliamentary Ombudsman issues new report on Equitable Life saga
Parliamentary Ombudsman, Ann Abraham, is keeping up the pressure on behalf of Equitable Life policyholders with a new report criticising the Government’s compensation proposals.
The UK’s oldest mutual insurance company came close to collapse in 2000 when it could not deliver the returns it had promised.
At the time, over one million savers lost up to 50% of the value of their pension funds.
There followed years of wrangling between a policyholders’ action group and the Government.
The matter was eventually given over to the Parliamentary Ombudsman and last July, a report published by Ms Abraham accused regulators of comprehensive failure and the Government of maladministration.
The report also recommended that a scheme be established to consider individual claims for compensation.
In January, when the Government revealed the details of the scheme, it emerged that it could take at least two years for payments to be made and that not all policyholders would be compensated because awards would be made on a hardship basis.
In her new report Ms Abraham calls on Parliament to consider whether the Government’s response is adequate, pointing out that the link between maladministration, injustice and the remedy to be provided “has been broken”.
Meanwhile, in April Equitable Life policyholders announced that they would demand a judicial review of the compensation offer made by the Government on the grounds that ministers have not given “cogent reasons” for refusing to accept some of the Ombudsman’s findings.
Category: Insurance News, Legal News
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