Tom Brake Supports Equitable Members' Action Group

5.30.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 20th Jul 2010

Tom recently met with representatives of the Equitable Members' Action Group (EMAG) in his office in Carshalton to discuss their concerns about compensation for members and former members of the insurer, Equitable Life Assurance Society.

At its peak, Equitable Life had 1.5 million policyholders with funds worth £26 billion under management, but its near-collapse in 2000 saw almost a million policyholders across the UK lose money. Since then, there have been extensive investigations and reviews into what went wrong at Equitable Life. It has been established that maladministration on the part of the Government of the day occurred, and agreement reached that payment should be made in relation to losses.

For almost a decade Equitable Life policyholders have fought for compensation for their losses suffered as a result of regulatory failure.

The Coalition Government has pledged 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." To this end, the Equitable Life Payments Scheme Bill was announced in the Queen's Speech.

Sir John Chadwick is expected to present his final report shortly on Equitable Life, which will outline proposals for compensation. However, the Government has confirmed two key points: that there will be no means testing, and that the dependents of the estimated 30,000 deceased policyholders will be included.

Tom Brake said "I support EMAG's campaign to get proper compensation for the victims of Equitable Life's collapse. The fight for compensation has lasted nearly a decade, which is far too long"