It has emerged that HSBC-owned NHFA paid a wide range of charities and websites for leads so that its advisers could boost their commission by selling investments. Crucial among these was the government-funded Firststop Advice service, which was set up after the Office of Fair Trading called for a one-stop-shop for information on care home provision in 2005.
The establishment of the website and telephone advice line was led by the Elderly Accommodation Counsel, but fellow charities Age Concern – now part of Age UK – and Counsel and Care were also involved, as was NHFA itself, as the then biggest care fees advice company.Anyone who ever had dealings with their previous incarnation, ‘Age Concern’, will know what an utterly useless and avaricious shower of little s***s they were…
I endorse your view of Age Whatevertheyarenow.
ReplyDeleteI once managed to get some photocopied advice about care home finance regulations out of them (pre-internet) but it was cleaar that their main object was to get granny to 'remember' them in her will.
I regard them as, at best, a marketing front for companies wishing to part old people from their money. That's the polite version, .
"Anyone who ever had dealings with their previous incarnation, ‘Age Concern’, will know what an utterly useless and avaricious shower of little s***s they were…"
ReplyDelete"I endorse your view of Age Whatevertheyarenow."
Age Concern preys on the elderly in Yorkshire and has been connected with commissions from dodgy Equity Release Scams.
A variation on the above is the recommendation of pseudo lawyers who offer will writing in the home for an impossibly low £25!
Whatever new name it chooses for itself, Nigeria would be a suitable location for a Head Office and blatant mailshots such as 'You have won a Lottery you never entered' could not further tarnish a totally soiled reputation.
"...but it was cleaar that their main object was to get granny to 'remember' them in her will."
ReplyDeleteSpot on!
When Age Concern decided to stop running my mother's local 'Active Age' club (all the better to concentrate on 'frail elderly' services, for which they were raking in the money in council grants) she took it over and ran it as a membership club.
Amazingly, her, my father (when he was alive) and a treasurer, plus help from a few others (plus me!), were all that was needed, in contrast to the 3/4 staff supposedly fully employed by this 'charity' just for that club alone.
OK, they have to cook their own meals now as well (easily and cheaply done by the volunteers), but the membership fees are the same, they get even more trips out (with greater subsidies), and even more daily activities from volunteers and official bodies (painting has taken off, surprisingly)!
"Whatever new name it chooses for itself, Nigeria would be a suitable location for a Head Office..."
Heh! ;)