49 Facts About Ros Altmann

Ros Altmann was appointed to the House of Lords following the 2015 general election as a Conservative, but describes her work both before and after the election as being politically independent, championing ordinary people and social justice.

Ros Altmann became well known in 2002 for leading the "pensionstheft" campaign on behalf of 150,000 workers and their families whose company pensions disappeared when their employers' final salary scheme failed.

Ros Altmann has supported the campaign for people whose pensions were placed in peril by Equitable Life.

Ros Altmann has twice been the recipient of the Pensions Personality of the Year Award.

Ros Altmann is a governor of the London School of Economics.

Ros Altmann was Director General of the Saga Group from 2010 to 2013.

Ros Altmann graduated with a first-class honours degree in Economics from University College London and won a Kennedy Scholarship to study at Harvard University, where she worked with prominent economists including Mervyn King and Larry Summers.

Ros Altmann later received a PhD degree from the London School of Economics for research into pension income and later life poverty.

Ros Altmann's work included advising on strategy for UK pension funds and funds established under the US ERISA rules, and advice to central banks.

In July 2004, Ros Altmann was appointed by the Labour Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, to the Strategic Investment Board for a three-year term.

The BBC's Panorama programme asked Ros Altmann to go to Cardiff to explain to the workers what had happened to their pensions.

Ros Altmann used her political and press contacts to ensure PAG appeared regularly in news bulletins and newspapers and devised the banner "Stripped of our pensions".

Ros Altmann produced research papers, background briefings and media articles and gave numerous speeches calling for compensation.

The campaign had taken over five years of continuous effort for which Ros Altmann received no payment.

Ros Altmann has supported the 1,500,000 Equitable Life policyholders in their fight for compensation following pension losses blamed on inadequate government regulation of the company.

Ros Altmann questioned "whether the holes in our regulatory regime are due to a system driven too much by the interests of the industries being regulated, rather than the ordinary people who need to be protected".

Ros Altmann expressed her "fear that the Government could try to resist any calls for Equitable Life compensation in the same way that it continuously refused to properly remedy the occupational pensions scandal over the last 10 years".

Ros Altmann, blaming delays on the investigated departments, accused the government of deliberately acting slowly, and called for prompt compensation.

Ros Altmann campaigned for many years for reform of the annuities market, in particular the sales process.

Ros Altmann believed the sales process failed to ensure customers understood the risks of annuity purchase and did not help them find the right type of annuity.

Ros Altmann described the December 2013 Financial Services Consumer Panel report on Annuities as the "most damning indictment" of the annuity market she had seen.

Ros Altmann has criticised changes to inflation protection of state pensions.

Ros Altmann successfully campaigned for change to the planned extra increases in women's state pension age, resulting in a reduction in a six-month the maximum rise.

Ros Altmann has been particularly supportive of the reforms for increased freedom and flexibility in Defined Contribution pensions.

Ros Altmann has warned of the dangers of interfering with the risk-free interest rate that underpins all financial asset prices.

Ros Altmann was an advocate of slow rises in interest rates as she could see the UK economy had started to grow strongly, well before others recognised this.

Ros Altmann has highlighted the distributional consequences of the Bank of England's policies, which she believes have redistributed national income and wealth away from the young, the old and the north of the country towards the wealthiest members of society, the south and those with the largest mortgages.

In July 2014, Ros Altmann was appointed business champion for older workers with the remit to encourage employment of more workers over 50.

Employers cannot ask a candidate's date of birth but Ros Altmann suggested that although 'O' levels which ceased in 1987 have a better reputation than GCSEs, employers are using them to identify and reject older workers.

In March 2015, Ros Altmann gave an interview to The Independent ahead of her report on older workers.

Ros Altmann called for recruiters to clearly state that jobs were open to people of all ages and warned that whilst most men's careers can progress until the age of 55, women stop at 45.

Ros Altmann was raised to the peerage as Baroness Altmann, of Tottenham in the London Borough of Haringey on 19 May 2015.

Ros Altmann highlighted her reputation as an economist completely opposed to the quantitative easing which she saw as reducing pensioners incomes but warned that she was too successful and there was no one of her effectiveness looking after the needs of the young.

In September 2015, Ros Altmann was ejected from the Labour Party after HuffPost revealed that she was a member, most recently since March 2014, while serving as a Tory minister.

Ros Altmann believes the millions more who will benefit in later life is a prize worth having.

Ahead of the 2016 budget Ros Altmann "raised concerns" about George Osborne's proposed pensions tax reforms which could have seen the abolition of tax relief on savings in exchange for removing taxation on withdrawals.

Ros Altmann's concerns, added to those of Conservative MPs, led to the abandonment of the scheme.

Ros Altmann declared herself shocked by the resignation of Iain Duncan Smith as he had championed the very reforms of disability benefits he claimed had caused his resignation.

Ros Altmann accused him of undermining her work and claimed that he had been looking for a reason to resign for some time in order to damage the party leadership's campaign to stay in Europe.

In February 2016 Ros Altmann noted that pensions providers relied on intermediaries for sales and didn't sell directly to the general public or study their requirements.

Ros Altmann believes that leading internet companies such as Google or Amazon could transform the market.

In July 2016, following the appointment of Theresa May as Prime Minister, Ros Altmann resigned from her ministerial position.

Ros Altmann, who says she tried to get a ban when she was pensions minister, was supported by Steve Webb.

Ros Altmann is a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on EU Relation, which is strongly opposed to Brexit.

Ros Altmann became a Vice President of the Jewish Leadership Council in June 2019.

Ros Altmann is married to Paul Richer, has three grown-up children and lives in North London.

Ros Altmann is Orthodox Jewish and is a regular attender at her local Finchley Synagogue.

Ros Altmann was appointed as Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2014 Birthday Honours for services to pensioners and pension provision.

Ros Altmann has two honorary doctorates - a Doctorate of Letters from Westminster University and Doctorate in Civil Law from Newcastle University - both recognising her pioneering work in investment for pension schemes and improving retirement policies.