Equitable Life compensation campaign goes regional

EMAG is setting up a network of regional action groups in anticipation that the Parliamentary Ombudsman may recommend compensation when her report is finally published in mid-July.

Click below to visit the new website and see how to join the campaign in your area. Even if you are already an EMAG member, logging your details on your regional site will enable you to keep in touch with action in your area or perhaps to join the regional team to help promote the campaign.

www.emagregional.org.uk

EMAG has set up 20 regional groups to launch the campaign with the possibility to extend the network later, if necessary. The first 20 groups include Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Manchester, Leeds, Norwich, Plymouth, and Edinburgh. The regional web sites include information on local campaign action and detailed advice on how to contact local MPs and their rival candidates.

The campaign is the brainchild of EMAG member, Chris Harlow. If you would like to offer assistance you can call Chris on 01865 515701 or email him on chris.harlow@emagregional.org.uk

More than one million people in the UK have been affected by the scandal, losing anything up to 50% of their retirement income or savings as a direct result.

"The Parliamentary Ombudsman is widely expected to call on the Government to compensate us for the appalling failures in regulation by a succession of regulators,” said Paul Braithwaite of EMAG. "We believe that the case for compensation is overwhelming. Regulators who were supposed to protect policyholders have failed us again and again. They were either asleep at the wheel or complicit in covering up the dire state of Equitable's finances for more than a decade.

"Just a few hundred votes in marginal constituencies could turn the tide and force the Government to finally do the decent thing. Now is the time for our members to get involved, write to their MPs and demand justice.

"Based on the evidence that has come to light, we expect the Parliamentary Ombudsman to find massive maladministration by Government departments and we expect Gordon Brown to fight tooth and nail to avoid paying out a penny in compensation, so we are digging in for a long fight."