It must come as a comfort to the victims of Equitable Life’s mismanagement that at last a Government is taking them seriously and is drafting legislation to deal with their loss from the debacle.  For readers who are not aware of Equitable Life and its problems – in a nutshell, government regulators failed to stop the selling of products that Equitable Life had no chance of paying out on.  These were not high risk products with unbelievable claims of return, but products we all invest in for our future and our pensions.

Many policyholders’ later life plans have been seriously destroyed by the collapse of the company. The collapse happened under the very noses of those whose job it was to regulate such products.  Reviews and investigations from 2000 onwards have concluded that maladministration was to blame and that appropriate recompense needed paying.  However, Labour dragged its feet and offered derisory payments to policyholders. At last, Conservatives have the chance to implement the compensation we have long called for.

The Treasury is drawing up a bill to put before the House of Commons which will see an independent commission award appropriate compensation.  The principles of the commission are that there will be no means-testing and that the dependents of deceased policyholders will be included in the scheme.  This is indeed the right approach; policyholders who lost their pensions, savings and income through regulator failure need to be compensated.

I will be supporting the Government as this bill passes its way through Parliament, this has been a scandal and I am happy that we can actually see the light at the end of the tunnel for people.