Updated 4 January 2024

EMAG exists to campaign for full government compensation. Will members of EMAG please note that because of pressure of work we regret it is not possible to answer individual written enquiries.

How would you feel if your pension was lost because of others' failures?

Treasury set to pocket c. £180m of compensation owed to policyholders

As a result of a series of Freedom of Information Requests, EMAG has established that at least £177m of the £1.5bn is set to be kept in the Treasury's pockets.

The underspend is accounted for as follows:

Draft legislation

Having discovered that the Treasury is set to keep around £180 million of the already severely reduced £1.5bn of compensation announced in 2010, EMAG has drafted a Bill which would require the Treasury to ensure that the full value of compensation announced in 2010 reaches policyholders. In doing so it would prioritise the most elderly and vulnerable pensioners.

EMAG believes that the Treasury trying to keep over 10% of the already inadequate compensation pot would be a further slap in the face for those who worked so hard to save for their retirement and who relied on the regulators to do their jobs.

It would add insult to injury considering the Parliamentary Ombudsman ruled that regulators comprehensively failed to implement the system that Parliament had legislated for, leading to a loss of £4.1bn for one million people.

APPG Extraordinary General Meeting

To ensure it complies with new parliamentary rules, the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Justice for Equitable Life Policyholders met on 5 December to elect the required number of officers. APPGs are now required to have exactly four officers, meaning the group had seven too many. The following four officers were elected:

Sir Peter Bottomley MP was appointed to the honorary role of President.

EMAG Annual General Meeting

EMAG's Annual General Meeting took place online on 17 November. All resolutions were passed and EMAG's existing directors were re-elected for a further year.

APPG Chairman Bob Blackman MP addressing attendees at an EMAG parliamentary reception
APPG Chairman Bob Blackman MP addressing attendees at an EMAG parliamentary reception

EMAG members and MPs demonstrating in Westminster.

EMAG's campaign objectives

EMAG will campaign until fair compensation is awarded to the million victims of the Equitable Life scandal.

For the majority 945,000 victims

95% of Equitable's with profits policyholders have received just 22% of the Treasury's calculation of their ‘relative losses’ without any interest paid from 2009 onwards.

With the economy at last recovering, we are campaigning for a commitment that victims will receive the missing 78% of their compensation entitlement.

For the pre–1992 WP Annuitants

We are campaigning to get MPs to insist that the 10,000 pre–September 1992 WP Annuitants are compensated on exactly the same terms as those who took their WP Annuity after that date. We view the current flat rate £5,000 as a welcome down–payment.

For the post–1992 Annuitants

For the 37,000 WP Annuitants who are receiving an alleged ‘100% of their relative losses’ we are seeking dialogue with The Prudential to see why annuity payments continue to fall every year.