Equitable Life policyholders get fresh hope for compensation
Equitable Life policyholders look more likely to get compensation after a coalition Government announcement. They’ve been fighting for nearly 10 years and two years ago were encouraged when the Parliamentary Ombudsman found regulatory failure and promised they would soon be compensated. However the fight continued and they were hampered by the secretive nature of the process and the previous Governments insistence that compensation would only be given to those who had been “disproportionately affected”. By contrast, the new Government has announced comprehensive compensation outlined in an initial statement:
“We agree to implement the Parliamentary and Health Ombudsman’s recommendation to make fair and transparent payments to Equitable Life policy holders, through an independent payment scheme, for their relative loss as a consequence of regulatory failure.”
The promise that payments will be transparent means claimants will now be able to scrutinise the process by which compensation is decided.
Many policyholders will be anxious to discover their entitlements and how quickly any payments might be made. Although this is a welcome first step the process still requires an Appeal Court Judge to decide on the level of compensation and for a Parliamentary Bill to be drafted and passed before payments can begin.
A particularly disturbing feature of this 10 year fight has been that many policyholders have died before they were able to get compensation. It’s been estimated that 15 people die every day without receiving justice. Paul Weir, spokesman for the Equitable Members Action Group, commenting on the Governments decision said “We’re delighted, it’s been a long time coming and we’ve campaigned for the best part of 10 years to get this.”
It’s expected that the Treasury will contact policyholders at the appropriate time although EMAG have made a database available to help them track eligible policyholders.
