Who Are Age UK And What Do They Do?

Age UK are a registered charity in the United Kingdom. Their main aim is providing support for those who need it in their later years of life.

Age UK have been a respected charity in the UK for many years, and you’ll have undoubtedly heard of them one way or another; their adverts are often on TV or radio, they have an active volunteering community who do charity fundraising, and of course they have many charity shops that accept donations of unwanted items that are then sold, with proceeds going to helping their cause.

What you may not be aware of though, is the incredible amount of help they actually output, specifically for older people.

In this article, I’ll have a brief look at who Age UK are and look at some of the fantastic services they offer for people who are in the later stages of their lives.

Below is a handy table of contents. Clicking on any of the article headers below will jump you straight to the place on this page you are interested in.

Table of Contents

What Does Age UK Do?

Age UK provide help and support to those in later life, specifically those who find themselves in poverty, those who don’t have the care and support they need, and those who are lonely and who have nobody to turn to.

They do this in a variety of ways, such as:

Freephone helpline run by volunteers, available 365 days a year.
Financial advice on benefits, bills, pensions etc. For example, there’s a free and easy to use calculator that will calculate benefit entitlement.
Health advice and information in one place, including wellbeing advice.
Care and support, advice and guidance, along with information on when to ask for help and where to ask for help.
Work and retirement advice, including finding work in later years.

The full overview can be seen from this menu graphic taen from the homepage of the website:

I’m sure you’ll agree, this is a huge amount of resources and help provided by one charity, and it’s importance cannot be understated.

Age UK History

You can trace the history of Age UK all the way back to war time Britian, in 1940, when it was founded and originally called Old People’s Welfare Committee.

Between 1940 and 2023, many changes and name changes have taken place (remember Age Concern?) as well as a huge amount of partnerships that have eventually joined together to work in a way that was more systematic and unified.

You can find out more about the history of Age UK here.

Who Can Access Age UK Support?

If you are not elderly, but know somebody who is elderly who needs support in one of the areas Age UK offers support, you can access the helpline to get help on their behalf.

The helpline is available 365 days a year, so if you have a neighbour, friend, colleague or even relative who you think needs some type of help, give them a ring and they will run through the options.

And of course, if you’re over 60, and feel you need some help or advice on a specific issue or problem, you can also access the service online or via the phone number above.

Summary

If you feel like you need help, or you know someone who you think needs some help, or even just a friendly chat, you can call Age UK on the freephone number above.

On the other hand, if you think you can help Age UK and could work for them, look out for new job postings on their website here, or alternatively, apply to become a volunteer.

Questions & Comments

If you have a question or a comment on this article on who Age UK are and what they do, then please use the comments box below or go to Age UK website direct. I’ll try my best to reply to each and every one of your questions, comments and suggestions.

Stay Safe. Stay Secure.