text_body: --- DIVISION TITLE ---
  
  Equitable Life (Payments) Bill - Clause 1 - Payments
  
  --- MOTION EFFECT ---
  
  @ MP voted aye to require payments to Equitable Life policyholders to be made irrespective of the date on which policies were taken out.
  @ MP voted no not to require payments to Equitable Life policyholders to be made irrespective of the date on which policies were taken out.
  
  The majority of MPs voted not to require payments to Equitable Life policyholders to be made irrespective of the date on which policies were taken out.
  
  The Government has accepted there were regulatory failings with respect to Equitable Life. The Equitable Life (Payments) Bill[1][2] is intended to allow compensation to be paid[3].  
  
  No restrictions on the date policies were taken out were included in the Bill as introduced. The rejected amendment would have added a new clause apparently intended to ensure no restrictions were introduced when administering the compensation. The proposed new clause, which was rejected by MPs, read:
  
  :'(2A) Payments authorised by the Treasury under this section to with-profits annuitants shall be made without regard to the date on which such policies were taken out.'.
  
  Labour MP Fabian Hamilton had proposed the amendment and explained his reasoning during debate[4]:
  :I tabled my amendment because, although I am well aware that the Bill is an enabling measure, I feel strongly that a group of Equitable Life policyholders has been unfairly excluded from the compensation scheme that the Government have put in place.
  :[...]
  :... The with-profits annuitants who took out annuities before the September 1992 cut-off date are as trapped as those who purchased them after that date and their incomes diminish each year. Having taken out policies that they believed would allow them to make ends meet in old age, they now face increasing poverty because Parliament did not act soon enough to prevent the collapse of Equitable. That is why we owe them the compensation that they deserve as much as the post-1992 with-profits annuitants.
  
  ==
  
  * [1] [http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2010-11/equitablelifepayments.html Parliament webpage on the Equitable Life (Payments) Bill]
  * [2] [http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmbills/062/11062.i-i.html Text of Equitable Life (Payments) Bill as introduced]
  * [3] [http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmbills/062/en/2011062en.htm Explanatory Notes on the Equitable Life (Payments) Bill]
  * [4] [http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debate/?id=2010-11-10a.293.4 Fabian Hamilton MP, House of Common, 10th November 2010]
  
  
  
  
  
  
  --- COMMENTS AND NOTES ---
  
  (put thoughts and notes for other researchers here)
  