An Inequitable Life

Following on from the recent report by Ann Abraham, the parliamentary ombudsman, in which she called for compensation for more than a million policyholders in Equitable Life there are now concerns that more than half of them may in fact get no compensation at all.

The Equitable Members' Action Group (Emag) has estimated that the cost of compensation could be around £4.6BN.

Many thousands of Equitable savers have gone through the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) to claim compensation for mis-selling. However, only 50% to 60% received any.

Given this, and the fact that the Treasury will not respond to the report until the autumn, it is unlikely that all the policyholders are going to come out of this scandal with the result that they would wish for.

Emag has threatened a judicial review in autumn, if the government does not satisfy them.

This will be a long battle, by which time many of the policyholders may well have died.

Posted in: compensation,Equitable Life,FOS,insurance