Wednesday, March 08, 2006

The Danger of False Hope

The Danger of False Hope

Ivan Lewis, Treasury economic secretary, has warned that the thousands of Scots who were mis-sold endowment mortgages by solicitors should not hold out "false hope" of obtaining compensation.

Lewis admitted that it was a scandal that a legal loophole prevented those, who bought a policy through a lawyer before 2001, from seeking financial redress in the event of a shortfall

He is quoted as saying:

"One of the difficulties (with a new financial safety net) is it's not retrospective. I do have great sympathy for people who have been caught out by endowment mis-selling in Scotland but there is a genuine problem."

Scots who bought policies from solicitors before December 1 2001, when the Financial Services and Markets Act came into effect, do not qualify for a deal from the Financial Ombudsman Service.

The solution is for the life assurance companies, that manage these useless policies, to underwrite them.

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