Stay warm and save cash advice for over-50s

With a new Information and Advice manager now in place, the charity is urging anyone over the age of 50 to take advantage of its 10-strong support team.

Now phone-based, due to the continued coronavirus restrictions, the professional advisers can help more people than ever before, with advice from 8am until 7pm 365 days of the year.

They would previously have made a good number of home visits around the extensive area, that takes in East and West Lindsey, and North Lincolnshire, which would take up a considerable amount of time.

“For the majority of work our team does the phone calls work extremely well, the advantage being the time saved by not travelling. And it is important to remember we are here for anyone over 50. Some people think we may not be able to offer them the help they need but we always can,” said manager Emily Brown, who has been in her role since October.

During these colder months, Emily explained how the service’s focus was on energy saving advice and assisting people to find ways to improve heating efficiency – and money.

As part of its work, the Information and Advice team was working with some of the major energy companies to promote services, such as EOn’s Winter Warmth project, which was delivering real savings, explained Emily.

She also highlighted how the charity’s relationship with the DWP, (Department for Work and Pensions) allowed it to fast-track certain benefit and allowance applications with the service also happy to offer information for older people to families, carers, friends and professionals.

“There are a number of discounts that people may well be eligible for and we do have the ability to fast track some of those applications. We are also able to conduct energy checks, which can identify anything from the need for boiler replacements to the use of energy saving bulbs and remote-control sockets.

The questions we ask are broad but identify the real help people can receive and the savings or discounts they may be entitled to,” said Emily.

“It is vitally important for people to know that we are here for them and we can deal with such a broad spectrum of issues that they may have. We get such good feedback from people,” she added.

Emily joined Age UK Lindsey, following a background in the corporate and health sectors, which included project management in Leeds and Nottingham.

“I have always been very people-focused but after a career within the private sector I wanted to give something back, especially at what continues to be a challenging time, for older people particularly,” she said.

Age UK Lindsey locally will be fully open again from Monday, January 4. Help is still available by phoning 01507 524242 (Option 1 for Advice & Information) until then.