11:57am Tuesday 9th March 2010
By Tristan Kirk
BOTH Harrow MPs have pledged support for pension holders who lost thousands of pounds in the near-collapse of Equitable Life.
The pension firm spent more than a decade claiming to have more money than it did, and was forced to drastically slash policy values in 2001 when told to pay back the money.
The actions, designed to keep the firm afloat, meant millions of policy holders lost money and they have still not been fully compensated by Equitable Life and by the Government which was in charge of regulating the industry.
Following a series of prompts from lobby group Equitable Members Action Group (EMAG), MPs Tony McNulty and Gareth Thomas have now signed up to the parliamentary all party group for justice for Equitable Life policy holders.
The group is calling for full compensation from the Government for the money lost.
Both Mr McNulty and Mr Thomas promised in private meetings with EMAG they would join the group, but faced the wrath of local Harrow members when they were slow to fulfill the pledge.
Stuart Pole, chairman of the Hertfordshire and Middlesex branch of EMAG, welcomed the MPs' action, joining fellow local MPs Mike Penning, Nick Hurd, Claire Ward, Anne Main, and James Clappison, as members of the group.
The Parliamentary lobby group is calling for the Government to drop its current compensation proposals - which are effectively based on means testing - and to pay out the compensation to policy holders within three months.
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