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Nearly half a million¹ older people risk missing out on vital financial help and other support this year following swingeing cuts to advice services.

Across England‚ 80% of Age Concerns² have suffered funding cuts to their trusted information‚ advice and advocacy services with the latest reductions beginning to bite in the last seven days.  Last year alone‚ these services helped put £100 million of money benefits into the pockets of older people.

We have today (7th April) launched both a new campaign ‘The price of no advice’ and an accompanying report ‘Transforming Lives’ to highlight the disastrous impact of these cuts and call for increased funding for these vital services. The campaign also calls for a new cross-government strategy to develop a more co-ordinated approach to providing and funding advice services.

Cuts to advice services mean that in the new financial year‚ about 480‚000³ people who come to the charity looking for support risk either not being helped or receiving a reduced service that may not meet their needs. The cuts come at a time when older people on low fixed incomes have been hit by massive price hikes and yet continue to miss out on claiming their share of up to £4.6 billion⁴ in money benefits each year. The services provide a vital means of helping them claim the money they need to meet their living costs.

Age Concern Director General Gordon Lishman said:
“Age Concern advisers provide a lifeline for over half a million older people each year.  Older people trust us because we are independent‚ provide face to face advice and understand their concerns.  It beggars belief that swingeing cuts in information and advice services are being allowed to place the health‚ wellbeing and dignity of so many older people at risk.”

Common reasons for older people not claiming support include not knowing that they might be eligible‚ being put off by the complex forms‚ not wanting to share details of personal circumstances with strangers and previous bad experiences.

The Age Concern services most vulnerable to cuts are those which are most labour intensive‚ such as completing complex forms with the client or visiting housebound people at home.  These services are far more effective at reaching the poorest older people than letters‚ leaflets and helplines.

Brian and Elsie are a married couple in their 70s living in Lancashire:
“We applied for Attendance Allowance and the advisor said we were also entitled to Pension Credit.  So he brought the forms and filled them in for us.  We would have found the Pension Credit form very difficult.  We got Attendance Allowance and Pension Credit.  I kept saying ‘are you sure?’.  It’s eased our worries a lot.  We’re a lot happier now.  We should have applied before because we have worked and paid our dues.”

Those helped by Age Concern say that any extra cash we have helped them claim is spent mainly on assistance to continue living at home‚ food‚ fuel and clothes.  They say the money allows them to live more independently and to have a better quality of life.

Additional cuts to information and advice services made by many Local Authorities in their 2008/09 budgets have just come into affect with the new financial year and have compounded cuts that fell mainly at the same time last year.  In addition to providing advice on benefits Age Concern’s information‚ advice and advocacy services also support older people with a wide range of other issues.

Factfile

• 1.8 million pensioners in the UK are living in poverty.
• Age Concern estimates around 2.25 million older households are now living in fuel poverty‚ with 250‚000 of these pushed into fuel poverty by price hikes this year.
• Up to £4.6billion in money benefits is unclaimed each year by older people. 
• Despite ongoing efforts by the Pension Service to improve take-up‚ up to 1.7 million older people are entitled to but not claiming Pension Credit.
• Up to 2.2 million older people are missing out on Council Tax Benefit – up to 45% of those entitled to the benefit.
• The average amount of Pension Credit unclaimed is £26 a week - £1‚352 a year.
• The average amount of Council Tax Benefit unclaimed is £12 a week - £624 a year.
• Age Concern polling shows that more than a third (35%) of people are worried that an older friend or relative is missing out on vital money benefits

ENDS

Notes to Editors

1. Age Concern advice services cover all of the UK but these figures relate to services in England.  Each year in England we help 600‚000 older people.  An extensive survey of Age Concerns providing the backbone of the information and advice services conducted over recent weeks has shown that 80% have been affected by funding cuts in 2007/08 and 2008/09‚ meaning that they are at risk of no longer being able to offer the full range of advice‚ information and advocacy that older people need.
2. This figure is an estimate based on a survey of 70 local Age Concern (39% of the 180 local Age Concerns who provide dedicated Information and Advice services).
3. As 80% of local Age Concern Information and Advice services are at risk from cuts to their funding 80% of the clients we would see in the next year‚ approximately 480‚000 older people‚ could be affected by the resulting cutbacks in services.
4. Source: Department for Work and Pension’s Income related benefits estimates of take-up in 2005/2006.
   

• The Transforming Lives report highlights the vital role played by information and advice services in tackling poverty‚ promoting dignity‚ and providing support for older people. It focuses particularly on the role services play in ensuring older people claim all the benefits and allowances they are entitled to.
• For a copy contact Emma Hayes in the Age Concern Press Office on 020 8765 7515 or email: emma.hayes@ace.org.uk or vist our Price of No Advice campaign page. 

For general enquiries please contact us.

Journalists contact:

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