Dear Ms Simpson,

Thank you for your Freedom of Information request. I write to confirm receipt of your request and to let you know that it is receiving attention. If you have any enquiries regarding your request do not hesitate to contact us.

Regards
Jhenene Simpson | Correspondence & Enquiry Unit, HM Treasury, G/S.2, 1 Horse Guards Road, London, SW1A 2HQ |

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http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk

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Dear Ms Simpson,

Thank you for your enquiry of 6 September. I am writing to inform you that the Equitable Life Payments Scheme (the Scheme), will be replying to you on behalf of the Treasury, as they are best placed to provide you with the information you have requested. Our statutory deadline for replying to your request is 5 October, and this has not been affected by the fact that the Scheme will now provide you with your response.

Kind regards

Nick Dippie | Information Rights Unit
HM Treasury| 2/W1, 1 Horse Guards Road, SW1A 2HQ

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Our Ref: ELF4

 

Date: 30.9.11

 

Dear Ms Simpson

 

Request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000

 

Thank you for your enquiry of 6 September. In response to your questions,
please refer to our answers below:

 

1.         Exactly how many Equitable Life annuitants have been paid to
the current date under the Treasury payment scheme?

2.         Why had no payments been made to the estates of deceased
annuitants as of 2nd August 2011, when this group have been identified as
a priority for payment under the scheme?

3.         Have there been any payments to the estates of deceased
annuitants to date?

4.         Exactly how many payments have been made to the estates of
deceased annuitants to date?

5.         Have any annuitants that were transferred over to Prudential
received payment to date?

6.         Exactly how many Equitable annuitants that were transferred
over to Prudential have been paid under the scheme, to date?

7.         With respect to Equitable policy holders that were transferred
over to the Prudential, have you yet obtained the necessary information
(names and addresses, facts and figures) of those

            policy holders from Prudential?

8.         If you have not begun to deal with annuitants transferred to
Prudential, when will this begin?

 

We have grouped the following questions together as they refer to
Equitable Life Annuitants which we have taken to mean policyholders with a
With-Profits Annuity (WPA). These are a group of policyholders whose in
force policies were transferred across to the Prudential. There are no
current WPA policyholders who remain with Equitable Life.

 

At the 2010 Spending Review the Government announced that in the region of
£1.5 billion would be made available to the Equitable Life Payments
Scheme, with £1 billion allocated to the Scheme in the first three years.
The Scheme started making payments in June 2011 and intends to make
payments of circa £500 million in its first year. To ensure that the
required systems are fully tested and robust, the Scheme’s implementation
plan is to make a low volume of payments initially. Payment volumes will
continue to be ramped up over the coming months as the Scheme’s complex
payment processes are refined further. There are additional complexities
in making payments to holders of WPA policies and the estates of deceased
policyholders. To date no payments have been made to this group of
policyholders. 

 

The scheme does have the necessary information for those WPA policyholders
transferred across to Prudential. Work continues to ensure that payments
to this group of policyholders can be made in line with the scheme rules
with all eligible policyholders to be contacted by June 2012.

 

9.         How will you ensure that priority groups under the scheme, will
be dealt with equally, irrespective of whether or not the policy was
retained by Equitable Life or passed over to Prudential?

10.        Will Equitable annuitants still with Equitable be paid ahead of
Equitable annuitants that were transferred over to Prudential?

 

The scheme will endeavour to make all payments in accordance with the
advice of the Independent Commission on Equitable Life Payments. A copy of
the independent report can be found at
[1]http://equitablelifepaymentscheme.indepe...
. The Scheme does not differentiate between policyholders from Equitable
Life and Prudential and they will all be treated in exactly the same way. 

 

I trust this satisfies your request. If you are unhappy with the service
you have received in relation to your request you have the right to have
this decision reviewed within 2 months of the date of this letter,
initially by our internal review process and, if you remain unhappy with
the decision, by the Information Commissioner. If you would like to have
this decision reviewed please write to the ELPS  Information Unit at the
address provided below or email [2][email address] . Please remember to
quote the reference number above in any future communications.

 

Yours Sincerely

 

Julian Hynd

On behalf of Equitable Life Payments Scheme,

Information Team,

1 Drummond Gate,

London,

SW1V 2QX

 

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