Age NI
March 14, 2022It has been a very busy month for the team at Age NI, on all fronts. We are working hard to continue to support older people with care, connection and wellbeing; our policy and engagement team are working to keep the needs of older people front of mind in important service planning and decision-making; and our advice line team are doing sterling work guiding worried individuals and families facing some very difficult circumstances. As ever, we are incredibly thankful to everyone who supports our work, however big or small, as this allows us to keep doing what we do for older people across Northern Ireland. A big thank you. Here’s some of our latest news:
Act4Age Manifesto Launch
As Northern Ireland prepares for Assembly Elections on Thursday 5 May, our Policy & Engagement team, together with input from older people, have been hard at work drawing up Age NI’s election manifesto.
Our Act4Age Manifesto follows on from our Lived Experience reports and last year’s fantastic Pensioners’ Parliament. We are calling on local politicians to place a greater focus on the needs and rights of older people in the next Assembly mandate. You can support our agenda when candidates are on your doorsteps in the coming weeks.
Age NI’s Chief Executive, Linda Robinson, was at Stormont with the Chair of our Consultative Forum, David Trelford, for the launch photos. We’ll be sharing more on our call to Act4Age next week, so watch this space.
Senior Driver
We are excited to have linked with Senior Driver magazine, a specialist local publication aimed at supporting older drivers to get on the road confidently and safely.
It is packed with information on car maintenance, motor insurance and safe driving tips. Copies will be distributed through Specsavers Opticians across Northern Ireland as well as Police Community Safety Partnerships and we will have some copies in our shops in Bangor, Ballymena, Coleraine and Newtownards. An online version is available to view here – well worth a look:
Age NI’s benefits checker helping to ease energy bill burden
Recent energy price hikes are hitting hard for older people in Northern Ireland, and while we have no control over energy prices, we can ensure that older people are availing of all the benefits and entitlements that could make a difference to their weekly budget.
Every year our Advice Line team helps thousands of callers to find out what support is available. Last year alone our Advice Line team supported older people to claim over £1million in benefits that most didn’t know they were entitled to.
We want to make sure nobody misses out on the benefits they are entitled to, especially at this very challenging time. A great starting point to check entitlements is Age NI’s online benefits calculator. It is free to use, and all details provided are anonymous. It takes less than ten minutes. Check it out here:
https://benefitscheck.ageuk.org.uk/Home/Start/?mc_cid=5370f7ea64&mc_eid=c6fd4f11c3
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