This in from Andrew Turner‘s office, in their own words. Ed
Around 450,000 people have already received compensation and many more are set to be paid out, but about 20% of those eligible for a pay-out have not yet been traced.
The compensation scheme is due to be closed in 2015, and those who have not yet made a claim are at risk of losing out. The scheme was set up in 2011 to pay out up to £1.5bn to victims of the Equitable Life scandal; £600m has already been paid out.
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However many people have moved without passing on their new address details and others are unaware that they may be entitled to a share of the fund.
In 2008 the Parliamentary Ombudsman published a report entitled ‘A decade of Regulatory Failure’. calling on the government to pay compensation to the victims. However it was not until 2010 that the new government committed to make “swift, fair and transparent payments” to the 1.5 million pensioners affected.
Mr Turner said :
“There are around 200,000 pensioners who may miss out on money that is due to them; some of those are bound to be living on the Isle of Wight. There are 650 parliamentary constituencies in the UK – so just using the law of averages there could be over 300 people who may be due a pay-out. They were badly let down by the regulators and they are entitled to a tax-free payment to compensate them for that failure.
“I have been dealing with a number of eligible policyholders for years and they have all registered to receive what they are entitled to – but there must be more people out there on the Island who should be making a claim. I urge them to look into it.”
Anybody who thinks they may have an eligible policy can find out more by telephoning the “Policychecker” service on 0300 0200 150, or they can write to Equitable Life Payment Scheme, PO Box 4110, Glasgow G58.
Image: CJ Isherwood under CC BY 2.0
