Pension Life was set up to identify and prevent pension scams, close loopholes in pension law and rescue victims of pension fraud.
Chair Angela Brooks said that due to Altmann's "stellar – perhaps incomparable - record as a pensions campaigner" people broadly welcomed her appointment.
Altmann has previously fronted a pensions 'theft' campaign, fought for compensation for 1.5m Equitable Life policyholders, lobbied to have the annuities market reformed, and publicly attacked changes to inflation protection of state pensions. She also helped safeguard age-related benefits, such as winter fuel allowances and free bus passes, from being cut by the Coalition government.
However Brooks says that Pension Life members feel let down and that their faith in her was misplaced. She added that "to say that they feel disappointed would be an understatement".
Brooks added: “It seems like she has been shackled by the office. Her inaction – willing or unwilling – and her refusal to engage has been alarming and it has failed this and future generations of British pensioners.
“She has turned her back on many of the big, important issues. For example, she was, many argue, a turncoat to the WASPI (Women Against State Pension Inequality) campaigners who have spoken out against her for her refusal to support their demand for financial help for women born in the 1950s, who are now seeing their state pension age moved from 60 to 66 without notice.
“It is utterly perplexing. She once marched in the streets in support of pensioners’ rights but is now refusing to acknowledge the injustice of the failure by government to give adequate notice of the change to State Pension age. Neither will she commit to meeting victims of scams in a bid to stop highly questionable organisations stealing savers’ hard-earned retirement funds.
“Baroness Altmann needs to urgently respond to calls to form an independent task force to combat this growing issue. I cannot see a reason why she doesn’t do this.”
