Mike Hancock News
Compensation for Equitable Life victims is long overdue â Hancock
Mike Hancock has welcomed news that the new parliament will see a bill introduced to compensate victims of the Equitable Life collapse and has vowed to push the coalition Government to get it enacted as soon as possible. Mike campaigned in the last Parliament for proper compensation.
He said: "Time is of the essence in this as former Equitable Life policyholders have been waiting far too long already. But this will be a massive relief for many people locally and millions up and down the country who lost their pensions in the collapse."
The Equitable Life Bill, which was outlined to the House of Commons last week, will give the Treasury the authority to make payments to policyholders or dependents who have been fighting the Labour Government for compensation since 2000.
Mike and the Liberal Democrats pushed in the last Parliament to get the Labour Government to compensate victims. But it refused to do so despite a High Court case and a report from the Parliamentary Ombudsman.
A previous Liberal Democrat motion to get compensation for the millions of people involved was defeated in October 2009.
Mike Hancock said: "The previous Government continually ignored the millions of people who lost their savings. Many local people lost up to half their pensions in the fiasco yet Labour failed to act, ignoring Liberal Democrat advice, ignoring the High Court and ignoring an Ombudsman report. We are using our position in Government to give policyholders the money they deserve."
Notes:
1. The full text of the written statement to the Commons is available here:
2. Vince Cable tabled an Opposition Day Motion on 21 October 2009. The motion is available here: http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2009-10-21c.918.1
3. Vince Cable tabled a cross-party EDM in May 2009 urging the Government to accept the Parliamentary Ombudsman's recommendations on compensating Equitable Life policyholders. The motion can be found here: http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=38586&SESSION=899
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