Independent Age
Independent Age (“IA”) is the national charity focused on improving the lines of people facing financial hardship in later life.
Through its grant programme, the charity also supports hundreds of local organisations working directly with older people across the UK.
More than 2 million people over the age of 65 in the UK live in poverty and at least another million live with precarious finances. Living in financial hardship affects older people's health, intensifies loneliness and reduces quality of life.
Visit independentage.org
In 2023 over 682,000 people, including almost 47,000 older people, accessed IA’s support across their various services.
This support included answering 20,000 calls and over 1,500 web chat enquiries from older people needing help and advice around welfare benefits, housing, social care, emotional support, volunteering and loneliness. In addition, the charity distributed c.250,000 information guides to older people and community groups, and identified £2.1m in unclaimed benefits that older people were entitled to.
IA’s Grants Fund supports older people who are particularly vulnerable to the cost-of-living crisis. To date, this programme has funded 50 organisations across the UK to provide services to support older people in their communities, with achievements including enabling almost 11,000 older people to receive a welfare benefits check; helping over 35,000 people living in financial hardship; and identifying more than £13m in unclaimed benefits.