Justice for Equitable Life policyholders thanks to the coalition government
David Worsfold writes in praise of what the coalition government is doing for Equitable Life policyholders:
The election of a Parliament with a Conservative-Liberal Democrat majority has led to the searing injustice of the Labour government’s failure to compensate policyholders in the failed Equitable Life being remedied.
This has been a long-running saga but at its heart lay the failure of successive regulators to get to grips with the way Equitable Life over-extended itself and offered policyholders guarantees of returns that were never going to be sustainable. Enquiry after enquiry was set set up as the government tied to wriggle away from its responsibilities, which actually have their origins in the period of Conservative government in the early 1990s.
The insult to people who bought the Equitable Life promise in good faith was re-doubled when the almost instant compensation scheme for savers with the collapsed Icelandic banks was announced at the end of 2008.
Frankly as a taxpayer I am sickened that yet more money will be thrown at the babyboomer generation which has taken enough already. As this editorial points out there is no reason why actuarial failures should require government compensation – particularly to a group as wealthy as the Equitable Life pensioners.
http://www.risk.net/life-and-pension-risk/opinion/1651811/equitable
Aaron: what’s your basis for describing all Equitable Life pensioners as “wealthy”? From what I’ve seen, there are plenty who don’t fall into that category.