New fight to win pension rights for 5m

A CAMPAIGN to give millions of retirees greater freedom over their pension savings launches today.

Organisers want ministers to end an injustice that meant those who stopped work before April 2015 had to lock up their pension in an annuity.

Those who retire after this date can invest in a draw down account or cash out their entire pot.

Since the changes savers have raced to cash in almost £10billion.

But most of those who retired before 2015 have had to buy an annuity, an insurance product that pays out a monthly income for life.

Campaigners claim unfair rules meant as many as five million people have been forced to buy products that were low paying and restricting the ability of retirees to access their savings in emergencies. In some cases people trading in £100,000 of their pot for annuities have been getting as little as £5,000 a year.

The Government is accused of reneging on a pledge to alter the rules.

Former Pensions Minister Ros Altmann said: “This is an injustice. There

are people for whom the previous system was utterly wrong.”

Baroness Altmann said she has even been contacted by cancerstricken retirees who have not been able to travel abroad for treatment because they were stuck with a worthless annuity. The new Your Pension Your Choice campaign is being backed by a cross-party group of MPs, led by Scottish Conservative MP Paul Masterton.

He said: “Freedom and choice was a revolutionary pension policy. But the Government has backtracked on a promise. More than five million are losing out.”

However a Treasury spokesman said the Government has no plans change the rules.

To back the campaign go to change.org and search for Pension Freedoms.