Over 1 million Equitable Life pensioners lost savings because of government and regulatory maladministration.

EMAG is campaigning to get the compensation they’re still owed.

If the State accepts responsibility for a mistake, it should provide full redress

“We must restore the sense that this is a country that can rectify injustice, particularly when carried out by institutes of the state.”
Sir Keir Starmer, May 2024

“Your pension is that foundation of your retirement and offers you stability. You have worked hard and contributed, knowing your pension will be there for you in later life.”
Liz Kendall, May 2024

The collapse of Equitable Life was one of the biggest scandals in UK financial services history. Over one million people lost a significant part of their retirement savings. Their retirement plans were blown apart. Typical Equitable Life victims include retired nurses, teachers, civil servants, factory and shop workers and small business owners. Most are not wealthy - the majority had less than £20,000 in their pension pot.

In 2008, the Parliamentary Ombudsman found that victims’ losses were the result of a decade of serial maladministration by government departments and their agencies.
In recommending redress, the Ombudsman called on the Government to “put those people who have suffered a relative loss back into the position that they would have been in had maladministration not occurred.”
In 2010 the Government accepted the Ombudsman’s findings in full. The Government accepted that victims’ losses amounted to £4.1bn. But only £1.5bn compensation was made available, against the Ombudsman’s recommendation.
While 37,000 With-Profits Annuitants (WPAs) are being fully compensated, 895,000 people have received only 22.4% of their acknowledged losses. They are still owed £2.6bn, without any consideration of interest.
10,000 of the most elderly and vulnerable WPAs were unfairly excluded from the compensation scheme on the grounds that they took their annuities before September 1992.
EMAG is calling on the Government to fully compensate policyholders by paying them the outstanding £2.6bn lost because of maladministration. It is also calling for the pre-92 WPAs to be treated the same as other WPAs.