A new campaign is underway to persuade the Government to stick to its promise and allow those who retired before 2015 to enjoy the potential benefits of pensions freedom.

When the Government introduced pensions freedom, up to five million people who had already invested in an annuity were “left behind” – but the Government promised that they would soon look to redress this.

Since then, savers have cashed in almost £10 billion, and the results have been judged largely highly positive.

But that promise to older savers has remained unfulfilled – locking many retirees into annuities that offer only a relatively low return. They are also unable to access their funds – even in an emergency or for life improving surgery.

In the words of former Pensions Minister Ros Altmann: “This is an injustice. There are people for whom the previous system was utterly wrong.”

Baroness Altmann says she has even been contacted by retirees who have not been able to travel abroad for cancer treatment because they were unable to take out much-needed funds from an annuity.

Now a new campaign has been launched to extend the same rights and freedoms as new retirees to those who stopped work before 2015.

The “Your Pension Your Choice” campaign has the support of a cross-party group of MPs and is 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.”

A Treasury spokesman has said the Government currently has no plans change the rules.

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