Updated 9 May 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?
Enough is Enough! – April 17 London March
EMAG joined other campaign groups in the ‘Enough Is Enough March for Justice’ in London on April 17. The march was a rallying call for individuals fed up with the scams, scandals, maladministration, malpractice, malfeasance, misconduct, mis-selling, outright fraud, and financial crimes that have victimised them and their loved ones. It was a platform for those who have been persistently failed by the regulators and authorities entrusted to protect them.
EMAG members, including EMAG Chair Paul Weir, marched with other protesters from the Royal Courts of Justice through Whitehall to the Palace of Westminster, with speeches at Downing Street, HM Treasury, HMRC and the House of Commons. The march secured significant media coverage including in the Mail, Telegraph, Sunday Times, FT Adviser, Citywire and others. The march was also covered extensively on GB News. Some of the coverage is available via EMAG's Twitter (now X) feed – see: https://twitter.com/EMAGnews.
EMAG Chair Paul Weir speaking outside the Treasury
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:
- of the annual top-up payments to With-Profits Annuitants (WPAs) - forecast to cost £618m at 2011 values - £46m less than budgeted for was spent up to 2022.
- the Government kept back a £100m contingency claiming that it was needed in case WPAs lived longer than expected, but with WPA annual payments running 8% less than forecast each year, it is extremely unlikely it will be needed.
- the rest - £782m – was left to share amongst other policyholders, but £31m is unspent, largely because of the Government's failure to trace thousands of policyholders.
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 AGM
The Annual General Meeting of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Justice for Equitable Life Policyholders took place on Tuesday 19 March. All the existing officers were re-elected to their posts.