Payments should start in the middle of next year Some 1.5 million policyholders with Equitable Life will receive a share of a total of £1.5bn, the chancellor has confirmed.
As expected, George Osborne said that the compensation payments would start in 2011.
Those who were hardest hit because they had already started taking their pensions through “with-profits” annuities will benefit the most.
Equitable Life came close to collapse nearly 10 years ago.
Mr Osborne said that when setting the compensation level, he accepted the views of the Parliamentary Ombudsman.
“A balance had to be struck between being fair to policyholders and fair to taxpayers,” he said.
Equitable Life, one of the UK’s leading private pension companies, closed to new business in 2000 and subsequently came close to collapse.
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