ANNUITANTS AND THE RECTIFICATION SCHEME

This information can be expanded as we receive further communication from ELAS and which we can use for hopefully valuable comparison. The marshalling of this information can then be used to appraise the feasibility of any further action on our problem.

My view of the current situation is as follows.

Following the House of Lords Decision a Court decreed that a scheme of Rectification should take place to “rectify” deemed “wrongs” that may have occurred with Annuitants who had acquired WP Annuities instead of GAR Annuities to which they were entitled under their Pension Policies.

The Rectification Process was started by the previous Board of ELAS and many Annuitants received some form of “rectification” before the current Board decided that the scheme was problematical and “Expensive”

The initial Rectification Process was therefore stopped and after considerable time a new scheme has been started – which will be less expensive and therefore less beneficial to the annuitants yet to be reviewed.

Doubtless ELAS will have required and received top quality legal advice as they are in effect changing the interpretation of the Court’s Decree. This will therefore possibly require further legal scrutiny as the details of their evaluations and offers emerge.

There is a strong indication that many GAR/WP Annuitants were misled when acquiring their annuities, but have not yet taken appropriate action on the understanding that a proper and fair Review would take place under the scheme. We may have been lulled into a false sense of security and now there is a potential conflict following the ELAS statement that they would not allow annuitants to

“……change the investment decision they took when they retired because they had the benefit of hindsight…..”

Peter Butler pdbutler@ntlworld.com