Charity loses its battle for funds (From This Is Wiltshire)

Charity loses its battle for funds

9:10am Wednesday 14th January 2009 in

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IT HAS helped hundreds of thousands of pensioners in more than 50 years of service.

But by the end of March, Age Concern Swindon will no longer be able to lend wheelchairs or give advice to the town’s elderly.

The charity has lost its battle to find additional funds after becoming unable to fund its share of the national charity’s pensions deficit.

Director Jo Osorio said: “What this means is our organisation has no option but close at the end of March.

“It is very sad for the organisation and very sad for old people in Swindon.

“Our staff are personally affected as well.”

The charity employs 18 people in Swindon as well as having about 100 volunteers who help elderly people get information, claim benefits and borrow wheelchairs and heaters when needed.

The closure of the service could see the town’s pensioners missing out on millions of pounds’ worth of benefits.

“We are now in discussion with the council about whether there is a possibility of keeping some of the services we provided for older people,” said Jo.

“At the moment we don’t know at all what services can be kept, if any.

“We had been doing some work with the Citizens Advice Bureau, so we anticipate that through the Citizens Advice Bureau that may be saved.

“We are going to be working very hard to make sure we have that on-going commitment to older people.

“There is a very large range of things we do at the moment to help people. We offer advice and our befriending service looks out for people on their own. We also offer benefits advice and raised £1m in benefits last year.”

Trustees have spent the last nine months trying to find a solution to efforts to fund the charity.

Age Concern Swindon’s finances have come under immense pressure because of a retirement benefits scheme run by the national organisation.

There were hopes Age Concern Wiltshire could run Swindon services, but said in a statement released yesterday: “On the basis of the due diligence and the feasibility study carried out by an independent consultant, Age Concern Wiltshire has decided, at this time, not to take on any of the services currently provided by Age Concern Swindon.

“Age Concern Wiltshire has taken particular account of the uncertainty of future funding for services in Swindon and the need to focus our resources on the consolidation of our recently restructured services.”

Age Concern Swindon’s chairman Derek Benfield said: “People benefited in the last year to £1.2m.

“Our trustees have reluctantly reached this conclusion following more than nine months’ deliberation.  “After nearly 60 years of ‘old people’s welfare’ and 40 as an independent organisation providing vital services to older people locally, we had hoped a transfer to other providers would be possible to safeguard the future for at least some of our services.”