Equitable Life compensation

BRITISH pensioners who lost out in the near-collapse of Equitable Life will be compensated as part of the UK’s spending review: £1.5 billion has been set aside.

Whitehall says it will cover full "relative losses" of people who had with-profits annuities, who they say were the hardest-hit, using £620 million to give payments for life.

The rest of the money will be paid in lump sums to other policy holders.

A representative in France for policy holders campaign group Emag, Graham Richards, said this would leave most members with "next to nothing".

Emag would be consulting lawyers and talking to backbench MPs to see what could be done, he said.