EMAG claims that the government has failed to provide adequate “cogent reasons” for rejecting most of the findings of injustice for regulatory failure throughout the 1990s.
The action group claims that the government’s high-handed response is effectively saying ‘because we say so’ rather than providing substantive reasons. The group is asking the court to quash the Treasury’s response to the Parliamentary Ombudsman’s report into Equitable Life.
EMAG's general secretary Paul Braithwaite said: “We are asking the court to force the government back to the drawing board on a compensation scheme and to overturn the mean ex-gratia payment scheme which won’t pay out more than 10% of what’s due.”
In a separate development, 321 MPs - more than half of all voting MPs in parliament - have now signed Vince Cable’s Early Day Motion 1423 stating that: “The government should accept the recommendations of the ombudsman on compensating policyholders who have suffered loss…”
Braithwaite added: “It is deplorable that the government has driven impoverished policyholders to taking this to court and ridden roughshod over parliament’s prerogative to vote on the ombudsman’s recommendations.
“However, we’re at a tipping point: The government is out of step with MPs, the Parliamentary Ombudsman, media commentators and hundreds of thousands of victims, who are furious with the government for ignoring them. Labour’s so-called moral compass has been missing for eight years, where Equitable Life’s victims are concerned.”
Pick up Monday’s Pensions Week for a review of this week's court proceedings.
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