Conservative candidate for Beverley and Holderness, Graham Stuart, today publicly pledged to fight for compensation to be paid to those affected by the Equitable Life pension collapse.
Equitable Life got into trouble when the House of Lords ordered it to meet £1.5 billion of expensive guarantees it had made to some of its annuity policyholders. More than a million people are estimated to have lost more than £4 billion as a result.
The Parliamentary Ombudsman issued a report in 2008 which highlighted a number of regulatory failings, including those which occurred between 1998 and 2001. The report accepted the principle there should be payments made to those people who lost out.
Graham said: “I am quite appalled at the way these hard working people have been treated by the Government. As a result I have written directly to the Equitable Members Action Group Limited (EMAG) showing my support for their pledge.”
The pledge reads:
“I pledge to the voters of this constituency that if I am elected to Parliament at the next general election, I will support and vote for proper compensation for victims of the Equitable Life scandal and I will support and vote to set up a swift, simple, transparent and fair payment scheme – independent of government – as recommended by the Parliamentary Ombudsman.”
Graham added: “I have met many constituents who have suffered as a result of this scandal. The policyholders of Equitable Life have been so badly treated by Gordon Brown and his Labour Ministers. They seem immune from the thousands of heartbreaking stories of real hardship both in our own area and around the country.
“Conservatives welcomed the Ombudsman’s recommendations as soon as they were published. Sadly, however, rather than following our lead, the Labour Government took a further six months before making a formal response and even then most of the findings were ignored. It has taken a judicial review in order to get this Government to finally accept responsibility.”
The Conservative Party has made a firm pledge to compensate Equitable Life policyholders and dependents with no means testing. The Party has also made this important issue part of the General Election Manifesto stating:
“We must not let the mis-selling of financial products put people off saving. We will implement the Ombudsman’s recommendation to make fair and transparent payments to Equitable Life policyholders, through an independent payment scheme, for their relative loss as a consequence of regulatory failure.”
