One Minute Brief of the Day:
Create posters that encourage people to speak up for the almost two million older people in financial hardship. #MakeAgeingFair
Let’s ensure that all of us can experience our later years without fear of making ends meet each day. Poverty doesn’t impact all older people equally, and it’s time to change that.
Together we can make ageing fair.
#MakeAgeingFair
To enter…post your entries to @OneMinuteBriefs and @IndependentAge on X and include the hashtag #MakeAgeingFair & link to independentage.org
Get as creative as you like and enter as many times as you wish. Remember your X &/or Linkedin handle in the top-left corner of your entries. Deadline 6pm BST.
You can also enter on Linkedin via the comments on our pinned brief here: linkedin.com/company/oneminutebriefs
Feel free to share posts and stories to Instagram too. Tag in @IndependentAge.
Prizes:
WINNER: £200
RUNNER UP: £100
About Independent Age
Independent Age is the national charity focused on improving the lives of people facing financial hardship in later life. Our helpline and expert advisers offer free, practical support to older people without enough money to live on. Through our grants programme, we support hundreds of local organisations working directly with older people across the UK.
We use the knowledge and insight gained from our support services and partnerships to highlight the issues experienced by older people in poverty and campaign for change.
We believe no one should face financial hardship in later life.
About our Make Ageing Fair campaign
The 2025 Autumn Budget is a crucial opportunity for the UK Government to enact changes to the social security system to support older people in financial hardship.
At Independent Age, we’re calling on the Chancellor to instigate solutions for older people in financial hardship in the Autumn Budget. We want to make ageing fair so that no older person faces financial hardship anymore.
Right now, there are almost two million older people living in poverty across the UK. For many in this situation, every day is a struggle just to pay for the basics and survive. Many do not have a safety net, and it can feel like the systems they rely on are unfairly rigged against them.
Spending later life in financial hardship isn’t inevitable, but too many older people have been dealt a bad hand. Whether from poor health, bereavement, or living on our own, some of us will encounter precarious finances. Who you are, how your health is and who you live with shouldn’t impact your prosperity in later life, but for too many, it does.
Things aren't getting any easier. Older people across England and Wales face a postcode lottery on their water bills, and these costs are continuing to rise. Up to 970,000 older people across the UK, who are entitled to Pension Credit, don't currently receive it and many are unaware of other financial support they’re entitled to. There are older people in our communities right now who struggle to afford even the cheapest private rents, fuelling constant worry. Pensioners in these difficult financial situations tell us they feel hidden and need a voice at the heart of policy decision making.
It's time to change that and make ageing fair, to ensure that all of us can experience our later years without feeling anxiety and fear of making ends meet each day. Our research projects the number of older people in poverty will double by 2040 if policies impacting older people on a low income stay as they are now. We need to act before that happens.
It doesn't have to be this way. The UK Government can tackle poverty in later life before it gets even worse. We are therefore calling on them to:
Develop a take-up strategy for all financial entitlements that older people are entitled to, so they get the financial support they’re eligible for
Support older people in financial hardship by rolling out a national social tariff for water and significantly improving energy bill support
Uprate Local Housing Allowance so renters of all ages aren’t made to make up ever increasing shortfalls in their rent
Introduce a Commissioner for Older People and Ageing
We know that poverty doesn’t impact all older people equally and it’s time to change that. Together we can make ageing fair.
Find out more: independentage.org
Links:
X https://x.com/IndependentAge
Facebook Independent Age (@IndependentAge) / X
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/independent-age
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/independentage/
Images you can use in your submissions if you wish:
This library of images of older people by the Centre for Ageing Better is also a good resource for inspiration about how to portray older people in a more age-positive way: Image library | Age without limits
Our brand guidelines are also available here. https://we.tl/t-us0Opt4deX
