HM Treasury patted itself on the back today (9 April) by announcing the government’s Equitable Life Payment Scheme has now paid out £901m.
Since 1 January 2014, the scheme has issued payments to a further 143,372 policy holders.
This equates to almost 1,600 policy holders being paid every week since January and means more than 860,000 out of 1m eligible policyholders have now received the payments due to them.
Exactly 405,946 payments have been made to individual investors totalling £542m with 34,440 first payments to with-profits annuitants issued by the scheme, totalling £64m.
Subsequent annual payments totalling £119m have also been made to annuitants; additionally payments of £20m have been paid to the estates of 2591 deceased annuitants.
The government revealed 417,995 payments totalling £156m have been paid to those who bought their policy through their company pension scheme.
In October 2013, the government announced that the scheme would be extended, to make sure that as many Equitable Life policy holders as possible receive the payment they are due for the injustice they suffered.
The scheme had previously been due to close in April 2014.
According to HM Treasury, the scheme has made significant progress in tracing individual policy holders.
Since 1 January 2014 a further 110,000 individuals have been traced as a result of extensive electronic tracing methods and work undertaken with other government departments, including the department for work and pensions.
The government has also provided separate financial support to nearly 9,000 individuals who have with profits annuities from the Equitable Life Assurance Society, which began before 1 September 1992.
Payments of £5,000, totalling about £46.8m, were made to this group in December 2013 with the assistance of the Prudential Assurance Society.
Speaking ahead of his change of role to culture secretary, Sajid Javid, the former financial secretary to HM Treasury, said: “I am pleased with the progress the Equitable Life Payment Scheme is making. This report shows that nearly 1,600 policyholders are receiving their payments every week.
“I am proud that the government is tackling the legacy of Equitable Life and has helped over 860,000 Equitable Life policy holders with over £900m worth of payments.”
Last month Equitable Life announced it was set to use some of the surplus in its with profits fund to improve its payout rate to 25 per cent.
The new rate will apply on transfer, surrender and maturity of funds and will come into effect on 1 April.
