RegulationNov 25 2014

Equitable Life payments near £1bn mark

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Equitable Life Payments Scheme has now issued over £990.5m worth of payments, following the government publishing a list of policies that are eligible for compensation.

Since July, the scheme has issued payments to a further 10,000 policy holders, meaning that over 887,000, out of 1m, eligible policyholders have now had payments issued to them.

Of this figure, 409,221 payments have been made to individual investors totalling £555.2m, 37,732 initial payments to With-Profits Annuitants or their estates have been issued by the scheme, totalling £82m.

Subsequent annual payments totalling £187.5m have also been issued to annuitants. Around 440,108 payments totalling £165.8m have also been issued to those who bought their policy through their company pension scheme

Equitable Life policies that are eligible are:

• Equitable Life Conventional With-Profits policies bought between 1 September 1992 and 31 December 2000 inclusive;

• Equitable Life Alternating With-Profits policy that either started between 1 September 1992 and 31 December 2000 inclusive, or had at least one premium paid into it between 1 January 1993 and 31 December 2000 inclusive; and

• Equitable Life WPA (With-Profits annuity) policy bought between 1 September 1992 and 31 December 2000 inclusive.

In October 2013, the government announced that the scheme would be extended, to make sure that as many policy holders as possible receive the payment they are due for the injustice they suffered.

The government has also provided separate financial support to around 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 approximately £46.8m, were made to this group in December 2013 with the assistance of the Prudential Assurance Society.

Andrea Leadsom, economic secretary to the Treasury, added that she was pleased with the progress the scheme is making.

peter.walker@ft.com