For Some Pensioners the Meltdown Started Early
October 28, 2009 12:00 PM
In Stockport Express
In Stockport Express
For most Stockport residents the financial melt-down started around a year ago. But for over a hundred and fifty local pensioners their financial melt-down started eight years earlier when the pension company Equitable Life went bust. Overnight their savings were worthless, and their retirement plans ruined.
It soon emerged that not only had the company done its sums wrong, but that the Government's financial regulator had completely failed to warn anyone that there was a big problem. Even so the Government refused proper compensation. So the Ombudsman stepped in, pointed out that they couldn't evade their responsibility, and ordered a full pay-out. Ministers refused point blank!
The Equitable Life catastrophe was an early sign that stupid risks were being taken by financial high-flyers and that the system of regulation wasn't doing its job. That didn't stop government Ministers at the time pooh-poohing Liberal Democrat warnings, nor stop Conservatives fighting to get rid of what regulation there was, on the grounds that it would damage their friends in the City.
Last Wednesday Liberal Democrats MPs forced a debate in Parliament to get the Government to face up to the Regulator's blunders and help pensioners get the money they are owed. We did so after the High Court had ruled in the pensioners' favour, and a second Ombudsman's report had underlined how serious the official errors were.
Sadly Labour MPs were whipped in to defeat us - and meanwhile fifteen pensioners a week are dying, still left without compensation for the biggest failure of financial regulation in thirty years. Ministers just won't admit they got it wrong.
It's been a tragedy for Equitable Life pensioners, and it was a disaster that no-one would listen to Liberal Democrat warnings then of the grave risks lurking in our financial system.
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