Equitable Life Payment Scheme: January 2014 progress report
Published 22 January 2014
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1. Summary of payments made
As of 31 December 2013, the scheme has now made payments totalling £816m to 717,600 policyholders. The figures are broken down as follows:
- 375,672 payments to Individual investors have been issued totalling £511m.
- 33,547 first payments to With-Profits Annuitants (WPAs) have been issued by the scheme, totalling £64m. Subsequent annual payments totalling £116m have also been made to annuitants. Additionally payments of £15m have been paid to the estates of 2,425 deceased annuitants.
- 305,956 payments totalling £110m have been paid to those who bought their policy through their company pension scheme.
2. Tracing the remaining policyholders
The scheme has gone to significant lengths to trace eligible individual policyholders. This includes electronic checking of credit histories, the electoral roll and phone book to verify addresses. In addition to this the scheme has also identified additional methods of tracing, including working with the Department for Work and Pensions, which will be used in the coming months to help locate more policyholders.
Payments continue to those who bought their policy through a company pension scheme. As previously reported, Equitable Life did not hold the personal details for most of these policyholders, and so the Scheme is dependent on pension scheme trustees sending the data to the Payment Scheme. To date data exchange agreements have been completed that cover over 90% of policyholders. On receipt of data from company pension scheme trustees payments are being issued by the scheme.
Any holders of a policy who have not been contacted by the scheme should call the scheme on 0300 0200 150. The scheme has implemented a new system in the call centre which allows most policyholders to verify their identity on the telephone, and thus receive any payment more quickly. This improved call centre system was in place for the recent national advertising campaign to trace policyholders. As a result of this advertising campaign some 20,000 people telephoned the scheme.
It is anticipated that these new approaches will result in thousands more policyholders who have not already come forward to the scheme being traced and paid.