Never too late: Money advice and financial capability in later life. April 2015

Transcription

1 Never too late: Money advice and financial capability in later life April 2015

2 We re Age UK Age UK is a charity and a social enterprise driven by the needs and aspirations of people in later life. We are here to inspire, enable and support older people to help people make the most of later life. Age UK provides information and advice to over five million people each year, runs public and parliamentary campaigns, provides training and funds research exclusively focused on later life. We support and assist a network of around 165 local Age UKs throughout England; the Age UK family also includes Age Scotland, Age Cymru and Age NI. We run just over 450 Age UK charity shops throughout the UK and also offer a range of commercial products tailored to older people. We believe that financial capability is vital throughout life and so we deliver services and conduct research and advocacy specifically on money advice, financial capability and other financial services issues. Each year Age UK helps older people identify around 160 million in benefits they are entitled to and our winter warmth programme has supported nearly 16,000 households, resulting in around 900,000 savings in fuel bills each year. 1 2

3 Contents About this report 4... Summary 5... Introduction 6... Lessons from Age UK experience 8... Appendix Notes

4 About this report This report aims to contribute to the current debates around provision of money advice and financial capability by bringing together lessons Age UK has learnt from years of delivering services to people in later life. It also makes use of some of the leading research on delivering services to older people, whilst acknowledging the need for much more research on how to deliver money advice and financial capability projects. When we talk about money advice in this report we are referring to a wide range of advice provision from generic advice, such as how to shop around for energy deals, to specific advice around claiming particular benefits. The money advice referred to in this report does not include regulated financial advice i.e. advising people on specific financial products or services. Planning for Later Life Age UK s Planning for Later Life programme, funded by Prudential, was run initially as a 12 month pilot through 11 local Age UKs and reached 2,553 older people through face-to-face advice sessions, home visits and telephone support. Additional funding has enabled us to continue delivery of the programme. The programme provides holistic information and advice to older people experiencing significant life events. In the vast majority of instances the advice provided includes an element of money advice and/or financial capability advice. Older people who have participated in the programme have done so for a variety of reasons, often needing advice on more than one issue. The programme has resulted in extra income for clients, through access to welfare benefits and grants but the real value of the work has been the personal and holistic nature of the support given to older people. 4

5 Summary Whilst we acknowledge there is much more that needs to be done to develop the evidence base on effective money advice interventions, the lessons we would like to pass on from our experience of providing information and advice to older people are: Lesson 1: Older people are diverse we need to recognise this and not assume that we understand their needs Lesson 2: Financial capability needs to adapt to more complex retirement income choices Lesson 3: It s not just about money other issues may need to be resolved first Lesson 4: Channel matters services need to make sure that not only do they offer face-to-face and home visits but that they target these towards those most in need Lesson 5: Prioritise getting to the older people who need money advice the most Lesson 6: Good money advice is trusted money advice Lesson 7: Turning advice into action helping people to take the next step Lesson 8: Support generalist advisers to pick up money issues Lesson 9: Recognise the context in which service providers operate Lesson 10: Money advice can change people s worlds advisers hear about problems that can prompt policy solutions 5

6 Introduction The development of a new financial capability strategy for the UK, together with recent pension and care reforms provide an ideal opportunity to take stock of what sort of money advice services really work for those in later life. Making the money last has always been a challenge but the length and complexity of retirement means that individuals must be increasingly financially capable, and those for whom this is not always feasible need access to better advice and support. Why we need money advice throughout later life Life doesn t stop at retirement and neither does the need to access money advice. Many people are unprepared for both the length of time and the range of outgoings their savings need to cover. People need help both to respond to crises as they occur but also ideally to start to plan even once in retirement, for example for future care needs. Even the best preparations can get derailed so people in later life often find they need to revise their plans especially following significant life events such as changes in health, bereavement or a change of housing. As Age UK s Financial Services Commission concluded life is inherently uncertain making planning ahead difficult at best and well-nigh impossible if you have limited resources. 2 While many people do not seek help until pushed by external events, ideally we should all be proactively managing our money in order to be as resilient as possible in later life. Financial capability and older people Stereotypes of money management and age usually assume that older people are prudent and good with money and need little help with day to day budgeting. Whilst this is true for many, the research shows a rather more mixed picture. The Money Advice Service found that when shown a sample bank statement, a quarter of those aged over 55 failed to correctly identify the available balance. 3 Age UK s report, Living on a Low Income in Later Life illustrates how older people on tight budgets manage by highly complex shopping around for daily goods, for example travelling to a number of different shops to get the cheapest fresh produce. 4 It is important that older people in this situation are also able to shop around effectively for financial services. Even where people have typically been strong money managers throughout life, they may need additional support later in retirement if their health declines. As banking methods change, consumers will need new skills to make the most of the new services. As well as ensuring good day-to-day money management, financial capability enables individuals to make good use of advice. Whilst advice will help at key decision points, older people also need to rely on their own resources, especially where the only advice available to them is generic, rather than advice tailored to their particular needs. In terms of regulated financial advice, the cost can 6

7 be prohibitive, leaving many older people with nowhere very obvious to go for advice. The changing face of regulated advice The landscape for financial advice has changed dramatically over the lifetime of today s retirees. Many will have experienced some form of financial advice in the past but may find these sources, for example advice at their local bank branch, are no longer available. Experiences of seeking financial advice tend to be mixed. Some older people speak very highly of the advice they have received, but there is still a deep lack of trust generally in financial services. This is the generation that experienced pensions and endowment mis-selling, Equitable Life and PPI. We welcome the high standards that the regulated financial advice sector is now committed to - but the changes don t really help older people who are wondering where to go to seek help. In 2013, 66 per cent of the population had not sought professional financial advice on retail investments, pensions or retirement. 5 In addition to changes in the advice market, financial products have also undergone a great deal of change. Many older people will have legacy products not now available, making it arguably more important to seek advice as some of these products will have special clauses attached, such as pension plans with guaranteed annuity rates or market value adjustments. Information It is important not to forget the role of information. For those with relatively low levels of savings this may be even more relevant than advice e.g for the around one in three pensioners with less than 1,500 in savings 6 the need may be simply to find the best interest rate available. A small exit survey conducted on the Age UK website found that 49.5% of people said their situation had improved either a little or a lot as a result of information they had viewed. 7 Some key facts There are nearly 14.7 million people in the UK aged 60+, of whom 3 million are aged The number of people in the UK aged over 85 is predicted to double in the next 20 years and nearly treble in the next One in ten of all pensioners do not own their homes. 10 9% of pensioners could not afford to replace a broken cooker % of people aged 60+ in Great Britain owe money. Of these, 7% have outstanding mortgage debt, 12% owe money on credit cards and 3% have a bank loan % of people aged 75 and over renew their home contents insurance with their current provider without checking the quote, compared to 11% of year-olds and 9% of year-olds. 13 7

8 Lessons from Age UK experience Lesson 1: Older people are diverse we need to recognise this and not assume that we understand their needs People in later life are often assumed to be homogeneous, despite the fact that they can encompass several generations. The needs of someone approaching or in early retirement are likely to be very different from their parents, for whom they care, who may have been retired for several decades. Following pension reforms the differences may be even more stark as the generation following may be less likely to be receiving a guaranteed fixed income from their pension savings. People in later life are as diverse as any other age group, from those who are comfortably off with high levels of financial capability to those who struggle to get by from week to week and everything in-between. Money advice needs to both address this diversity and recognise the reality of life beyond paid employment. For example: Older people with savings and investments may need help understanding how to spend these down. There is currently a shortage of messages around divestment. Some older people in debt that Age UK has referred to Stepchange for debt advice have deeply ingrained feelings of stigma around being in debt and have felt a duty to repay the debt, shunning the option of bankruptcy or taking out an IVA, even though this was the best option for them. Commonly used messages such as do you have three months worth of income saved? may be less relevant to older people. A better question might be have you got enough put aside to repair your boiler, taking into account the cost of living? Very small amounts can have a huge impact on the quality of life of an older individual, so it is important that any messages and targets which include amounts saved or gained reflect the relative importance to these groups. 8

9 The following are some of the comments and questions older people have: How do I know if I can afford to retire? I have no idea what I will need to spend in retirement or when. Which of my investments should I cash in first? I ll need to budget for the first time when I am only getting my pension, but I just don t know where to start. A friend has just lost all her savings to a very plausible fraudster. How can I avoid becoming a victim too? I struggle to get to a bank or cashpoint these days. Are there any other options available to help me access my money? Ideally I need to use some of the equity in my house but how can I decide if equity release or moving to a smaller place is the best thing for me to do? Since my wife died I ve had to take over all the bill payments. I ve never done this before and am struggling to make sense of it all. When will I know if I should be dipping into my savings? I think my mother now needs to go into a care home. How can I find out how much she will have to contribute to the cost of this? Understanding the needs of older people is made more difficult by the use in research of open-ended age bands (55+, 65+). The use of online surveys is also likely to exclude large numbers of older people. People enter later life with a wide range of health, social and financial resources at their disposal. For example, some will enthusiastically adopt new technology but others lack confidence or have no interest in being on line. Where we live can also make a huge difference to our access to banking or advice services. Experiences both good and bad also affect our attitudes towards saving and spending. Most of us were brought up to save for a rainy day now it s starting to drizzle most of us have been careful and saved and it s difficult to break the habit Participant in older people s forum on financial inclusion,

10 Lesson 2: Financial capability needs to adapt to more complex retirement income choices Transitions into retirement have changed dramatically in recent years: the ending of a default retirement age, the continual rise of state pension age, the introduction of the single tier pension and changes to pensions allowing many people to take their pension as a lump sum rather than an income. Retirement is becoming ever more a journey rather than a single, one-off event, with people having more options around when to access their pension savings, potentially combining this with staying in paid employment on a part-time basis. I think things are changing too fast to make those long term goals. And you don t know if you ll ever get there or how much things will have changed by the time you get there. As the state pension age rises older people will need help navigating working age and retirement benefits, as well as the pros and cons of accessing a pension early or delaying use, especially if they are in a couple with very differing ages. These decisions can have a major impact on an individual s income in retirement. With the decline in availability of defined benefit pension schemes fewer and fewer people, unless they choose to buy an annuity, will have guaranteed forms of income in retirement. Financial capability may have to shift focus from how to manage on a low but fixed income to how to derive the best income from a finite pot of money and potentially deal with changing spending patterns over a retirement that could last as long as a working life. As life expectancy increases, more people will have to make decisions about paying for care and how to deal with the effects of cognitive decline. Female, Generation R research participant from Age UK Financial Service Commission 10

11 Lesson 3: It s not just about money other issues may need to be resolved first In our experience, people who need money advice often have a range of other advice needs or may not have identified their issue with a financial capability or money advice need. The recognition of the need older people have for holistic advice was one of the motivations for the development of Age UK s Planning for Later Life programme, funded by Prudential. Following bereavement a range of advice, including money advice, will often be needed. Somebody thinking about residential care funding may benefit from understanding more about home care and being able to compare costs and understand the different services themselves. Benefits advice is likely to be a vital part of any money discussion with an older consumer and can make a huge difference to the lives of those struggling to manage on low incomes. 14 Age UK s extensive experience in income maximisation shows that it is essential to: Raise awareness that people may be entitled to state support Help people understand what they may be entitled to. Overcome reluctance to claim. Provide practical help to make claims and provide follow support if needed. Between 3.7 and 5.5 billion of pensioners incomerelated benefits are unclaimed every year. 15 Participant in Planning for Later Life project Miss A is a lady of 82 living with her sister, also in her 80s. Miss A was having chemotherapy to treat cancer which left her very ill and her sister was struggling to provide her with support. Both ladies had been involved with the local Neighbourhood Network Scheme for older people and were attending a lunch club and social events. Since the start of the treatment they had been unable to attend these and the Network was worried they were becoming isolated, so the Network approached Age UK. Age UK found that the sisters were struggling to manage financially and carried out a benefit check. Miss A has been awarded Attendance Allowance and has been put in touch with local care providers who are giving support four times per week. This provides respite for her sister and enables both to go to a social event at least once per week because they can now afford the taxi fare to get there. We are no longer struggling to manage and my sister can now have some time to herself. We are also able to see our friends again and, although I am still receiving treatment, I am feeling much better in myself. 11

12 Lesson 4: Channel matters services need to make sure that not only do they offer face-toface and home visits but that they target these towards those most in need Some older people are enthusiastic internet users, however the majority are not. Over 29 per cent of people aged and almost 63 per cent of over 75s have never used the internet. 16 The need for a range of channels is likely to remain. Technology will change and our ability to use it will also change as we age so even some of today s confident users may need face-to-face or telephone services when they become older. A home visit Offers access to in-depth face-to-face advice for older people who are unable to leave their home and may not have access to transport. Can enable the older person to speak more freely as they are in a familiar environment. Allows access to relevant documents (when compared to visiting a local advice office when documents may be left at home). Provides the adviser with a better understanding of the life of the client and any additional support they might need e.g. is the client s home warm and clean? Is the client managing independently? Face-to-face and even home visits are more expensive than online or telephone services, but if well targeted can be better value for money. We have seen some anecdotal evidence through the Planning for Later Life programme that home visits are an effective channel of advice provision for older people. 12

13 Evidence from users of the Citizens Advice Bureau s Money Guidance service showed that clients who received face-to-face advice were 1.9 times more likely to feel that their needs had been very well understood than telephone users. 17 Those commissioning and delivering services need to ensure not only that an appropriate number of sessions are delivered through different channels but that home visits and face-to-face sessions are reaching the most vulnerable clients. As these clients will often be harder to reach, there may be disincentives to spending time and resources to seek out the clients most in need of these services. A pilot referral partnership Age UK set up a pilot referral partnership with StepChange Debt Charity to explore whether some clients who might initially be unable or unwilling to use telephone advice services could become comfortable with them following some initial faceto-face support from the local Age UK. The arrangement also allowed third party referrals to enable someone to receive debt advice on behalf of an older client. Over 20 Age UKs referred about 250 clients to StepChange during the sixmonth pilot. Effective triage systems are needed to identify those most able to help themselves, eg with online resources and those who really need face-to-face support. It is worth monitoring who is in receipt of face-to-face sessions to ensure these sessions are preserved for those who most need them. 13

14 Lesson 5: Prioritise getting to the older people who need money advice the most We need to get better at targeting and engaging with those older people who are most vulnerable to the consequences of making poor financial decisions. Age UK s MoneyTrail programme (see page 22) was targeted at women aged working full or part time with earnings between 12,000 and 20,000. It was particularly effective at raising awareness of the basic financial facts of retirement and prompting participants to take action, including reviewing their financial, working and educational plans and beginning to save more. A third of indebted older people could not see themselves seeking debt advice, compared to around one in six for all age groups. 19 The Money Spinner programme run by Age UK Blackburn with Darwen 18 found that a major challenge was to overcome participants views that they knew everything they needed to and to help them learn something new without challenging their self-respect. It may be possible to learn lessons from digital skills training. By focusing on an outcome which is relevant and desirable to the target group (e.g. being able to use Skype to see grandchildren more often or use a digital camera) it can be easier to attract participants to computer training. Similarly, money skills may not seem attractive, but something focused on saving for particular events or lowering your utility bills may be. Financial capability interventions tend to adopt a life event approach since people are more likely to seek help when they have a clear and immediate need. There are a number of other triggers which could be used to reach potential clients. For example, the new pensions guidance may be an opportunity to connect clients with wider financial capability interventions. 14

15 While targeting people by life event may be an effective strategy for initial engagement it brings two delivery challenges. Firstly, clients experiencing a significant event, such as bereavement or a severe change in health, are likely to need a wide range of advice and support and financial advice may be less of an immediate concern than adjusting to a major life change. Holistic and joined up services are, therefore, essential. Secondly, seeking help at times of crisis rarely allows for optimum solutions. Advisers will therefore want to convert these crisis contacts into opportunities for preventative work. In the case of extremely hard to reach clients, it may be helpful to consider intermediaries who may be supporting the client, such as care providers or housing managers, as a means of providing both information and skilled support for an individual. Cuts in services, for example, increased social services assessment waiting times, transport cuts, changes to benefits, lead to issues getting to a crisis point before people seek help, which then requires more adviser time to sort out. For older people it means increased worry and decreased ability to pay for everyday bills and needs. Age UK Head of Customer Services in the North East 20 15

16 Lesson 6: Good money advice is trusted money advice There often remains a perception that older people will not talk about money so little will be achieved through trying to talk to older people about their finances. However, the Money Advice Service has found that the majority of people, including 67% of people over 55, are comfortable talking about money with family and friends. 21 Older people need to feel they can trust the service they are getting. This trust could come from being an established and trusted brand, such as Age UK or Citizens Advice. Equally it could come from having some form of existing relationship, perhaps through the provision of other services. What is likely to have the most impact on how open the client is prepared to be is the skills and quality of the adviser themselves. A knowledgeable and sensitive adviser can make a huge difference to the quality of a welfare benefits application from an older person who is doing their best to keep going without complaining. It isn t always about complex forms - in order to be awarded certain benefits, applicants must include highly personal details that they would usually keep private e.g. can you make it to the toilet at night on your own? I was really stressed out about filling in the form required by the DWP and concerned after reading and seeing the negative reports on the process. The lady I saw went through the form with me and I found it very helpful and reassuring. I came home feeling much less stressed. Woman in the North East, age A single adviser is unlikely to be able to provide all the advice that an individual needs in one session, but a good adviser will be able to identify key issues and make appropriate connections. Research has found that older people value continuity of contact and a follow up service as opposed to simply being referred to another potential source of information. 23 The Age UK advice line has found that only 30 per cent of people follow signposts, so having the ability to warm transfer clients by telephone to other organisations is a much better option. A warm transfer is where the call centre operator dials a number and talks to the person who has picked up the call before transferring the caller to them. 16

17 Lesson 7: Turning advice into action helping people to take the next step The real test of effective money advice is that it enables the client to take action and increases their confidence to handle matters themselves in the future. But to do this the client will need to clearly understand what they need to do next and will need to be able to access information and tools to help them make their own decisions. For example, using a comparison site to shop around for the best deal on energy bills. If they need independent financial advice they will need to understand how to find and choose an adviser as well as how to make good use of their time. It is therefore vital that information and tools can be accessed through a range of channels which enable clients who are offline to continue their financial capability journey independently. Even the best financial capability training and guidance prescriptions will not be enough for all clients, especially those with high needs and mobility impairments who may require some kind of casework. Money advice that enables as many people as possible to take action themselves will free up resources for those who need more detailed assistance. Turning advice into action Mr N was retired and sharing a rented two bedroom bungalow with a friend. He was concerned that his friend was moving out and was very anxious about how he would afford to pay his rent and bills alone. Mr N has difficulties reading and writing so accessing the services he needed could be a challenge. Mr N was referred to Age UK s Planning for Later Life programme, funded by Prudential. An advice worker assisted Mr N in applying for local authority housing, advertising for another lodger and applying for the relevant benefits. Some complex queries were raised about his pension credit and also his occupational pension. Mr N has now received full housing benefit, council tax benefit and pension credit. He has extra money to live on allowing him to spend more on extra heating, food and on improving his social life. Mr N has enrolled on a literacy course and his reading and writing have vastly improved. He says that visiting Age UK has improved his social life, his physical health and his ability to pay bills making him feel happier and more content. 17

18 Lesson 8: Support generalist advisers to pick up money issues As we ve seen, the quality of an individual adviser can make a huge difference to the delivery of money advice something that can only be achieved by investing in the training and supervision of advisers and giving them good quality tools to work with. Having a consistent evaluation framework and standards are also important to improve the level of knowledge about what works we have a lot to learn about the most effective ways of improving financial capability. As the Money Advice Service points out, it is only by robustly understanding which interventions are most effective that the biggest impact on people s lives can be made and resources put to best use. 24 The Money Advice Service also makes the point that evaluation needs to be properly resourced by providers and funders if it is to be valuable. Tools and evaluation methods should be realistic and evaluation tools need to be flexible enough to capture the value of projects which may look very different or may be integrating money advice and financial capability into wider projects. They should also be able to balance the advantages of having providers who are experts in communicating with target groups and able to effectively deliver advice and services with the fact that they may not be dedicated money specialists. There is a role for training and developing materials to help generalist advisers pick up money issues and integrate them into other work. For example, the Planning for Later Life Programme has developed a toolkit for advisers. 18

19 Age UK runs an Information and Advice Quality Programme for local Age UKs. This covers the full range of advice topics, including money. Each local information and advice service must show that: It provides consistent, relevant and effective advice to clients and demonstrates this by providing sufficient information in client records It has clear and relevant systems and procedures in place to manage the delivery of consistent, good quality information and advice to clients It plans and monitors its services and seeks feedback from clients and stakeholders The service is assessed against the benchmarks by a trained independent assessor and its quality standard is recognised by the Advice Services Alliance. Organisations achieving the benchmarks set out in the Age UK I&A Quality Programme can passport to the Advice Quality Standard. According to one local partner who has gone through the programme: Undertaking the Age UK I&A Quality Programme was a daunting prospect. A great deal of work went into our preparation for the assessments. We received support from our I&A Development Adviser. Having successfully completed all elements of the programme we are delighted to be able to tell funders and partner organisations we have met the benchmarks. The alterations we made as a result of going through the programme mean that we are now in a position to deliver an even better information and advice service to older people in our area. 19

20 Lesson 9: Recognise the context in which service providers operate Providers often operate under extreme pressure. Currently services are experiencing high levels of demand due to major policy changes in some areas such as welfare benefits at the same time as having uncertainties over their funding. In 2012 the majority of local Age UKs reported difficulties in obtaining sustainable funding. 25 Despite this, local providers who are already connected with hard to reach groups who can offer a range of services are often ideally placed to offer money guidance and financial capability services to those who most need them because they have a head start in knowing who needs help and understanding how to support them. They will usually also ensure that the client receives holistic, well connected advice. Smaller providers or locally run programmes are often better able to experiment with different delivery methods or to adapt and adjust delivery in response to changing demand or results. Local organisations are able to make adjustments more quickly so can usually do so at a relatively low cost. Therefore it is important for larger national organisations to learn from different methods used at a local level and to encourage this experimentation. We need to ensure that the drive for standards and evaluation does not get in the way of innovation. We need to ensure that the understandable drive for standards and evaluation does not get in the way of innovation ultimately we need a range of suppliers, both large and small and to encourage innovation. The advantage of working through local organisations is that they can tailor services to their local population. This can require a different approach to commissioning but does not preclude rigorous supervision and evaluation. 20

21 Lesson 10: Money advice can change people s worlds advisers hear about problems that can prompt policy solutions Money advisers have an important role in sharing what they learn with product providers and regulators to remove barriers and problems. Consumer organisations such as Age UK, Citizens Advice and Which? hear about the problems people face on a daily basis and so are uniquely placed to highlight both issues and solutions to policy makers. An example of this is Age UK s report The Way We Pay, which highlighted difficulties experienced by some older people in managing their day-to-day money, such as problems with accessing cash or finding ways of delegating money management safely to other peope when a power of attorney is not appropriate. This led the Payments Council to conduct research on delegated payments while several banks are considering options for delegated payments. It has also been used to help keep cheques available and to encourage payment system operators to make technical innovations such as cheque imaging age-friendly. Moderating the rise in the state pension age After the Government announced changes to the state pension age, which for some women in their 50s would have meant a rise of two years, Age UK was contacted by many women who were concerned and angry about the change. This led us to start a campaign; in the end the Government made a concession and capped increases at 18 months. The women s stories also gave us good insight into the importance of the state pension, in particular for those with lower incomes, and have informed our ongoing work. Age UK evidence and that of other consumer organisations contributed to the Financial Conduct Authority s recent report on vulnerable consumers, which has called for significant improvements in customer service by firms in the financial services sector. 21

22 Appendix Age UK runs a number of different programmes that offer money guidance to older people and has run many programmes in the past. The following are short summaries of some of the projects mentioned in this report. Planning for Later Life Age UK s Planning for Later Life programme provides holistic information and advice to older people experiencing significant life events. The programme is summarised on page four of this report. MoneyTrail MoneyTrail was a financial capability tool piloted in 2008 by Age Concern (now Age UK), designed to help people begin planning financially for their retirement. Supported by DWP and Legal & General, the software was distributed by CD- ROM to 6,387 people and used in face-to-face advice sessions at a number of local Age UKs. The target group was women aged working full or part time with earnings between 12,000 and 20,000. Ninety-six per cent of those who used MoneyTrail said they had taken action afterwards, most commonly reviewing their retirement plans, requesting a state pension forecast and seeking further advice. Two thirds reported that they had changed their savings behaviour as a result of using MoneyTrail. Some reported they had changed their career plans, for example pursuing extra qualifications or planning to work longer. Money Bus Age UK has run the More Money in Your Pocket campaign for the past eight years challenging some of the myths around benefit eligibility and encouraging people to claim what they are entitled to. The campaign s aim is to increase takeup of benefits available to older people including pension credit, housing benefit, council tax benefit and non-means tested benefits such as attendance allowance. As part of this wider work Legal & General sponsored some outreach work in the form of a Money Bus, where Information & Advice (I&A) would be delivered by local Age UK I&A staff and some Legal & General volunteers to identify unclaimed benefits for older people. The Age UK Money Bus undertook a tour of eight locations during the summer of The bus saw 184 clients and advisers identified 302,082 per annum worth of unclaimed benefits (around 1630 per client). Money Spinner Money Spinner was a pilot programme run by Age Blackburn with Darwen Concern, designed to increase the level of financial capability amongst older people who for a variety of reasons are not confident in using some of the elements of modern financial management. Training was delivered to people living in sheltered housing during 2005/06. 22

23 Notes 1 In their words, Age UK Financial resilience in later life, Age UK The Financial Capability of the UK, Money Advice Service Living on a Low Income in Later Life, Age UK The RDR and consumers, Personal Finance Society Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion 2010, New Policy Institute, Age UK survey, Jan-Feb 2013, 447 respondents 8 Mid-2013 Population Estimates UK, Office for National Statistics National population projections, based, Office for National Statistics Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion 2010, New Policy Institute Households Below Average Income 2012/13, Chapter 6, DWP TNS survey for Age UK, April/May Income-Related Benefits: Estimates of Take-up in , DWP Internet Access, quarterly figures, Q1 2014, ONS May Information and advice for older people evidence review, Age UK Making the money last, Age Concern 2007, p Based on unpublished analysis of Financial Capability Tracker data (waves 2-5), Money Advice Service 2013/14, taken from Financial Capability draft strategy Who can I turn to? Age UK The Financial Capability of the UK, Money Advice Service 2013, p Who can I turn to? Age UK Older People s Perspectives, Joseph Rowntree Foundation Financial Capability Strategy for the UK, Evidence and Evaluation, Money Advice Service Financial Survey of 122 local Age UKs conducted in August Financial Capability Strategy, Older people in retirement, Money Advice Service How we can end pensioner poverty, Age UK

24 Age UK Tavis Hosue 1-6 Tavistock Square London WC1H 9NA x 24 Age UK is a charitable company limited by guarantee and registered un England and Wales (registered charity number and registered company number

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