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2024-03-31-accounts

Age UK

Report of Trustees and Annual Accounts 2023/24

Age UK is a charitable company limited by guarantee and registered in England and Wales (registered charity number 1128267 and registered company number 6825798). Registered address: Age UK, 7th Floor, One America Square, 17 Crosswall, London, EC3N 2LB. Age UK and its subsidiary companies and charities form the Age UK Group, dedicated to changing the way we age.

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Contents

Contents
Strategic report
How we work 3
Age UK’s strategy 4
Our impact:
We campaign and research 8
We provide information and advice 11
We improve health and care services 14
We deliver wellbeing services and programmes 15
We support the Age UK Network 19
We work internationally 22
Our people and our organisation 25
Fundraising 28
Trading 31
Financial review 33
Funding and finance 37
Risk management and assurance 40
Governance 42
Section 172 statement 49
Environment and sustainability 51
Further information 55
Statement of Trustees’ responsibilities 56
Trustees, Executive Directors and Professional Advisers 57
Independent Auditors’ report to the Members of Age 61
UK
Financial statements 65
Group statement of financial activities 65
Balance sheet 66
Group cash flow statement 67
Notes to the financial statements 68
Thank you 99

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Strategic Report

How we work

Age UK believes every older person should be included and valued. We work locally, nationally and internationally to make that happen. Through campaigning , local support, advice and friendship, we’re changing the way we age.

The Age UK network

We are proud to be part of the Age UK network. The Age UK network includes Age UK, together with three national charities: Age Scotland, Age NI and Age Cymru, and over 120 local Age UKs across England, five local Age Cymrus and Age Scotland Orkney.

We work together with local Age UK partners and our national network partners in a range of ways. Grant funding is an important part of this. For example, we co-design and deliver charitable programmes (see pages 7 to 23), for which Age UK receives funding and makes grants available for suitable partners to deliver. In 2023/24, we distributed £23.1 million in total in grants to other organisations, including those in the Age UK network (in 2022/23 this was £30.9 million) (see page 20-22).

Working locally, nationally and internationally

Together with our partners, we’re changing the day-to-day experience of getting older through essential services and local support – like help at home, exercise classes and digital inclusion. Age UK partners deliver these services, using their expert knowledge of their area to transform older people’s health, wellbeing and finances.

Our specialist, impartial advice is changing how older people feel when they face a challenging issue – whether it’s care, money, health or housing. A call to our free advice line, a visit to our website, or a face-to-face appointment at an Age UK partner can help change older people’s worries into answers.

Our friendship services are changing the issue of loneliness among older generations. From weekly chats on the phone and local in-person befriending to round the clock support from our Silver Line Helpline, we’re changing loneliness and isolation into comfort and connection.

We’re an expert voice on ageing, changing the way older people are treated and represented in society through research and campaigning. We work with local and national policymakers to challenge inequalities and push for the changes that’ll improve older people’s lives.

Outside the UK, our sister charity Age International is changing the global situation for older people in low and middle-income countries facing emergency situations, and through longterm development work.

Through Age International, we fund programmes in over 27 low and middle-income countries. Age International is a member of the HelpAge global network and the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC).

Funding our work

Fundraising is our largest source of income. We also raise significant income through our charity shops and AgeCo Limited, a commercial subsidiary (see page 31).

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Developing our new strategy

Our strategy is crucial for all of us at Age UK because we are passionate about supporting older people. During 2023/24 we developed a new strategy for Age UK to run from April 2024 for five years.

Listening

We have spent a lot of time listening to the older people we support, as well as colleagues, and our local and national Age UK partners about what they want Age UK to focus on. During 2023/24, we established a consultation panel made up of a diverse group of older people. We met with them on a regular basis to gain their insights and thoughts with every part of our strategy, from our vision, mission through to our strategic aims and values. Their opinions and thoughts were instrumental in shaping the final version of our strategy.

Older people and local Age UK partners told us that older people are facing real struggles. Some are really struggling with rising living costs, many are isolated or excluded and a lot of people don’t know where to turn to for support. Older people told us they often feel unheard, alone and undervalued. But they have vastly different experiences. Importantly we heard that it’s about the journey and not the destination. We change as we move through life. We want Age UK to play a role in changing the way we age.

We didn’t lose sight of the fact that we were developing our own strategy at the same time as having discussions as part of the Age UK network on our collective shared future (see page 118). That shared future is a central part of Age UK’s new strategy.

A bold new direction

These conversations have informed our new strategy which sets out a new, bold direction for our work and has at its heart a vision that older people are included and valued in our society.

Central to our strategy is our steadfast commitment to achieving our vision locally, nationally and internationally. Dialling up the volume every time that we speak out with and for older people.

We now have a single, ambitious, unifying vision and strategy that will drive everything we do, with an upfront commitment to inclusion. It means we are co-creating a new way of working as the Age UK network based on mutual respect and regard so we can increase our collective reach through a network of sustainable and strong organisations (see page 18 on Our Shared Future).

We know we need to be ambitious in our approach to income generation across retail, fundraising, Age Co and Age International so we can achieve the greatest impact. We will have to look deeply at our ways of working so we are as effective as possible with strong foundations in place so, together, we can deliver our strategy. And we need to clearly tell our new story to key audiences and everyone over 50, giving the public a much better idea of what we are here to do.

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Our strategy 2024-2028

Our vision

A world where every older person feels included and valued.

Our mission

Together we’re going to do this by providing crucial support for older people and driving change locally, nationally and internationally.

Our strategic aims

Our strategy sets out five key strategic aims for us to work on together:

Our values

Our values are at the heart and soul of who we are as a charity. They describe how we interact with each other and with the people we support every day.

Collaborative

We work together locally, nationally and internationally, respecting and valuing our different skills and strengths to make the biggest impact on older people’s lives.

Impactful

We act to bring about real change – in older people’s lives, in communities, and in society as a whole. We strive to make a positive difference that inspires others to support us.

Ambitious

We believe that a world where every older person feels included and valued can be achieved with determination and drive. No matter how difficult the task, we’ll do what it takes to get us closer to that reality.

Inclusive

We want everyone to be seen, respected and valued for the person they are. We’re committed to acting on the needs of an increasingly diverse older population and changing as a charity to be more approachable and accessible to all.

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Our priorities for 2024/25

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Our impact

We campaign and research

We spent £11.1 million (2022/23: £12.0 million)

What we do

It is vital that the voices of older people are heard by those who have the power to make decisions that affect them. Our public policy and research expertise, what we hear from older people and our thousands of campaigners, coupled with insights from local Age UK partners, enable us to spearhead powerful campaigns on the issues that matter most to older people.

Highlights from 2023/24

Protecting the living standards of older people

We campaigned to protect the triple lock on the state pension, gaining commitments from the Conservative Government to continue with the policy. Our campaigning work protected increases in other means-tested benefits so that they also rose with inflation.

Our report ‘Cold at home’ showed how the winter cost of living pressures continued to impact older people. The report helped secure support from the government of the day for the energy bills and day-to-day expenses of older people on low incomes.

We campaigned against forced installation of pre-payment energy meters and secured an effective ban on forced prepayment meter installation for people aged 75 and over, and a review of the higher charges faced by older people who don't pay by Direct Debit.

We continued to work with the industry to ensure the successful rollout of more shared Banking Hubs.

Championing NHS and social care reforms

The Conservative Government confirmed that prescriptions in England will remain free for those aged 60 and over after our influencing and campaigning work.

Our reports, ‘We have to take it one day at a time’ and ‘The State of Health and Social Care’ demonstrated that many older people are struggling and highlighted inequalities for some groups of older people – those in deprived communities on low incomes, those from particular ethnic minorities, and carers.

Our annual winter health campaign was a continued success. Information that we shared on keeping well during winter had national reach through the media, online/ social media and via printed materials. The campaign also provided 28 local Age UK partners with grants to help fund their winter work supporting older people in their communities.

Changes in the health and care system means more decisions are being made locally, so we work closely with colleagues in local Age UK partners to help them influence those decisions. This joint effort combines the expertise of local Age UK partners with Age UK’s knowledge of national policy and priorities. Together we have created new resources, tools, and activities to effectively influence local systems to better support older people. One of those resources around winter pressures directly led to services getting funded through a local Age UK partner.

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We launched a new section on our website for health and care professionals to provide information and tools to ensure they are supported in their role.

We commissioned The Centre for Mental Health to produce a report on older people’s mental health, which found that older people’s mental health is being routinely overlooked and that ageism and discrimination is stopping older people from accessing the support they need. We updated and relaunched our Older People's Positive Practice Guide for NHS Talking Therapies and published our own report ‘I just feel that no one cares’, highlighting the impact of poor mental health on older people.

We have worked closely with NHS England on frailty this year. This included: acting as a key stakeholder in NHS England's work on Urgent and Emergency Care; helping to ensure frailty has remained a priority for the NHS recovery plan; helping to draft the service specification for the roll out of Acute Frailty Services in hospitals; supporting the final development and launch of the framework for proactive care for people living at home with frailty; and helping to make the case for the establishment of a Frailty Board recently set up within NHS England.

We commissioned research into the system of Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards, exploring how they work for care home residents, managers and local authorities, and highlighting the flaws in the current system.

Promote the needs and interests of older people who are not online

We launched our ‘Offline and Overlooked’ campaign, calling on the Government to protect and improve the delivery of public services for older people who are offline. Our petition, which asked Government to make sure offline alternatives are always in place, had around 60,000 signatures at the end of March 2024. We shared paper copies of the petition with older people and local Age UK partners to make sure those not online could make their views heard. And Age UK’s shops joined the campaign by sharing campaign postcards that meant their older customers who aren’t online could join.

Justin Madders MP raised our campaign in Parliament, securing a debate in the House of Commons in which 18 MPs spoke.

We worked with local Age UK partners to conduct research and publish a report exploring how local authorities process offline applications for parking Blue Badges. This work gained national media attention.

Protecting against scams

We published a major evaluation of Age UK’s scams project. We framed the learnings of the project for a policy and political audience with the aim of ensuring the Government factors the cohort into its future fraud strategy work.

Justice for the Windrush generation

We campaigned to improve the compensation available to older people caught up in the Windrush Scandal. We published a report sharing the stories of older people from the Windrush generation who have been affected and set out our calls for change.

Our work and calls for change were shared by peers in a House of Lords debate on Windrush where we brought older people affected to meet Baroness Benjaman and watch the debate which she led. We continue to work alongside specialist organisations to champion the needs of the Windrush generation.

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Commissioner for Older People in England

We campaigned alongside 70 other organisations to call for a Commissioner for Older People in England. Wales and Northern Ireland already have Commissioners for Older People who speak up and advocate for older people, holding the Government and others to account.

Our impact in numbers

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We provide information and advice

We spent £9.2 million (2022/23: £8.7 million)

What we do

The Age UK Advice Line provides independent, impartial and expert information and advice seven days a week, every day of the year. We reach people on the phone, online, and faceto-face through Age UK funded programmes delivered by local Age UK partners. We are able to provide expert, impartial and easy-to-understand support that helps people in very practical ways – from managing money troubles to finding a care home.

By speaking to older people, their loved ones and their carers, day-in day-out, the Age UK network is constantly learning about the challenges older people face, which helps to shape our campaigns, programmes, and services.

Support from corporate partners and charitable trusts enables us to deliver communitybased information and advice programmes with local Age UK partners. These programmes give us opportunities to test new ways of strengthening and delivering information and advice, especially for those who need us the most. We share what we learn to help design and improve services across the Age UK network.

Highlights from 2023/24

Our national benefits advice team

Our specialist benefits team completed 6,375 benefit entitlement checks and identified a total of £30.1 million for older people, which is on average £4,714.45 annual potential income for each person we supported.

To get more information about what happens for older people after the support we offer, we assessed data on follow up contact between our benefits advisors and clients between August 2023 and February 2024, 12 weeks after the initial appointment. Out of the 214 people we contacted, 84 per cent had gone on to make a benefit claim, and 74 per cent of these claims were successful, resulting in thousands of pounds of extra income going into the pockets of older people who need it most.

Signposting to other services

The Age UK Advice Line is the front-door to a whole world of support – with our advisors trained to listen and ask guiding questions, so they not only respond to callers’ immediate queries, but also pick up on their wider needs. We offer support that is holistic and tailored to the individual needs of our callers. This year, our advisors signposted older people 129,798 times to Age UK services and other support such as charitable organisations, community groups and local authorities.

Integrating local and national services

We offer an information and advice integration service to local Age UK partners. This means that when local Age UKs are closed, or their telephone lines are not available, calls to local Age UK partners are diverted to the Age UK Advice Line. We provided this service to 55 local Age UK partners this year.

Many local Age UK partners are seeing big increases in demand making this service more valuable than ever. Many of the enquiries we receive via integration can be solved with a

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local signpost to relevant services, along with other information that we can provide. We can also book call-backs and transfer calls to some integrated partners.

Supporting LGBT+ veterans

In July 2023, we launched ‘Operation Sterling’ in partnership with ‘Fighting with Pride’, an LGBT+ military charity that supports veterans who were adversely affected by the ban on LGBT+ personnel serving in the Armed Forces. Through this project, the Age UK Advice Line offers advice and support to older LGBT+ veterans to help them access the financial support they are entitled to. This project has been made possible through generous funding from the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust

Extending the delivery of our Bereavement Support programme

We are grateful to our partners L&G and Dignity who have funded our Bereavement Support programme, which this year provided practical and emotional support to 359 people. Over 50 per cent of these people had a face-to-face appointment with a local Age UK advisor and, over 80 per cent were provided with a benefits review to support with their finances following a bereavement.

Online and printed information and advice

Our website and printed leaflets and guides are a trusted source of information and advice for millions of older people and those that support them. We write our information in plain English to make sure that all topics – from benefits and housing to complicated legal topics such as wills and power of attorney – are accessible and helpful to all.

In 2023/24, there were 13,462,346 views of our information and advice webpages (up 7.19 per cent from 12,559,422 in 2022/23). Our website features an online benefits calculator and this year 255,000 benefit checks were completed using the calculator.

Roll out the Quality of Advice Standard

In late 2022, we launched a new Quality of Advice Standard for the Age UK network. This year, we completed 50 Quality of Advice Assessments (QAAs) and eight Service Management Reviews (SMRs) leading to a total of 80 Age UK partners that now hold Quality of Advice Standard (QAS) certification.

In addition to this, we supported 52 Age UK partners with Quality of Advice Assessment Corrective Action Plans. We provided 49 training sessions for Age UK partners to help improve the quality of advice.

Embedding the Age UK Quality of Information and Signposting Standard

The Quality of Information and Signposting Standard (QISS) is part of Age UK’s Quality Assurance Framework. All services offered by Age UK partners that deliver information and signposting as a primary function need to undertake the QISS self-assessment, except for services that have already achieved the Age UK Quality of Advice Standard or are undergoing certification.

This year we have been improving the self-assessment return needed from Age UK partners to achieve the QISS and we are reviewing options for how this standard is assessed in future within the planned new Network Agreement (see page 18). We have completed the first self-assessment exercise and provided a badge of achievement for all Age UK partners that have met the standard. It has been decided that the standard will remain self-assessed at this stage.

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Our impact in numbers

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We improve health and care services

We spent £2.7 million (2022/23: £3.2 million)

What we do

The social care system is broken. Fundamental change and a lot more public investment is needed. We campaign for change nationally, but also think it is vital that we work to improve how local health and care services are delivered and commissioned. This is especially so given the crucial role local Age UK partners play as providers of services to hundreds of thousands of older people. However, we know that local Age UK partners face huge levels of demand while having to compete fiercely for ever-diminishing funding.

Age UK works to improve how local health and care services are delivered, helping local Age UK partners to improve the quality of their services, expand sustainably and to deliver services which are focused on the individual older person, based on what we know works.

Highlights from 2023/24

Developing a new tool to measure quality

This year, we developed a Regulated Services Self-Assessment Tool for local partners in Englandbased on the Quality Indicators within the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) new regulatory framework. The CQC is the independent regulator of health and social care in England.

We made sure that the tool mirrors the CQC’s processes and the categories which they assess services on. This enables local Age UK partners in England to see how they measure up against the CQC’s new quality indicators so they can prepare for their CQC assessment in the best way possible. This tool was distributed for use to local Age UK partners in England at the end of 2023.

Assisting local Age UK partners to navigate NHS integrated care systems

Age UK has worked collaboratively with the Age England Association (see page 55) to create a set of tools to help local Age UK partners in England effectively navigate and adapt to their Integrated Care Systems (ICSs). This initiative, developed in conjunction with CEOs of local Age UK partners, combines detailed data and practical resources to provide a clear understanding of local health and care systems. These tools help our partners make informed decisions, influence local policies and plan services that meet the needs of their regions.

Addressing winter challenges

We have promoted key strategies and actions to address the challenges older people, and the NHS, face during the winter months, which are also useful all year round. We have aligned our resources with the NHS's 10 High Impact Actions and other relevant health and care frameworks to offer evidence-based advice and practical tools to prevent unnecessary hospital admissions and highlight benefits of proactive preventative support. By strategically positioning the practical support offered by local Age UK partners, we help improve health and care services and outcomes for older adults across England.

Our impact in numbers

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We deliver wellbeing services and programmes

We spent £12.0 million (2022/23: £14.0 million)

What we do

Our Telephone Friendship Service (TFS) is a free UK-wide service, which offers older people a trained volunteer to have a regular chat with once a week. In addition to individual calls, we provide group calls, facilitated by one of our volunteers.

Our Silver Line Helpline is the only free 24/7 helpline specifically for older people, offering friendship, conversation, and support. The Silver Line Helpline is open every day of the year and is available to support people when other services, including local NHS mental health teams, are not.

We work together with local Age UK partners to develop, deliver and test new services which can address obstacles to wellness that many older people face, whether that is through loneliness, isolation or a lack of opportunities on offer in their communities.

Highlights from 2023/24

Expanding our Telephone Friendship Service

By the end of March 2024, the service was supporting a total of 4,486 matches between older people and their volunteer befrienders, after reaching a record high of 4,548 in September 2023. Although we didn’t achieve our target of 5,000 matches, this was an increase from 2022/23, where we reached a total of 4,370 matches and the biggest growth to date in the service. We also saw the shortest waiting time to date for an older person to join the service, with the wait time in September 2023 being 0 days, and referrals being contacted the same day.

We continued to make improvements to our digital system throughout the year, as well as improving our policies and procedures to put us in the best possible position to achieve a higher number of matches in 2024/25. A new volunteer handbook, providing a wealth of information and tips to volunteers on the service has been well received.

We launched an internal volunteering opportunity for Age UK staff to make short Good Day Calls, which are 5-minute calls to older people who are waiting to be matched with a volunteer, with over 25 staff members taking part each week. They made over 6,000 minutes' worth of calls to older people in 2023/24.

We started the application process to achieve the Quality in Befriending award, which we hope to achieve in 2024/25. This is the only award in the UK which is specifically tailored for befriending services and is valued by referrers, befrienders, commissioners and funders.

The Silver Line Helpline

In November 2023, we celebrated the tenth Anniversary of The Silver Line Helpline. Since its launch in 2013, the Silver Line Helpline has answered over 3.8 million calls from older people.

An external qualitative evaluation was carried out on the Helpline in January 2024 with positive results. Over a period of two months, 49 in depth interviews took place, conducted by research experts using a set of agreed questions. The results of the evaluation were

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anonymised and used to create “critical flow” journey maps. Older people told us they valued the unique service The Silver Line offers – the opportunity to have a friendly, two-way conversation, that they do not need a reason to call and that it helped to reduce their feelings of loneliness. As part of the evaluation a group of colleagues and volunteers were also interviewed. Silver Line colleagues and volunteers said they had a positive experience and were proud of being part of The Silver Line.

This year we launched Age UK’s volunteer hub to our volunteers, making our application and onboarding process more efficient and user friendly. We started an audit on our volunteering service, exploring ways we can improve and enhance the volunteer experience, and offered enhanced wellbeing and support groups to our colleagues and volunteers.

We have learnt from a counselling and coaching pilot which supported 75 clients and worked with 18 students from 7 universities during 2023/24. The pilot tested whether providing a counselling service would be beneficial to older people, as well as assessing if it could help reduce the number of frequent callers to The Silver Line Helpline, who require a higher level of support than we can offer through a friendship line.

We carried out an external evaluation of the pilot which found that experiences of both older people, and student counsellors were very positive. Although the service did not reduce the number of frequent callers to The Silver Line Helpline in the way we hoped it would, it provided some great outcomes for older people.

We made the decision to pause the pilot at the end of June 2024 to enable us to focus our resources on supporting as many older people as possible through our larger scale national services. We have taken some great learning from the project and hope to revisit it at some point in the future.

Taking a more holistic approach to our various front-line services

We continue to see more demand for our services than we have the capacity to meet, and we don't currently have the systems or technology to easily join up the support we provide to individuals through our different services. In developing our plans and vision for how we want our national services to operate in the future, we've spoken to more than 1,000 people including existing service users, older people, other charities and colleagues across Age UK and in local Age UK partners during 2023/24. Delivering our vision and plans will take time and resource, with this work expected to continue until 2029.

Building on the success of our walking football programme

We are proud to have continued to bring walking football into the heart of local communities, engaging older people, particularly those from underrepresented communities, to increase physical activity and tackle social isolation.

We provided a further 13 grants to eight local Age UK partners, who in turn set up 14 walking football groups, reaching 248 older people in 2023/24. The programme closed in December 2023, but as of November 2023, 66 per cent of the groups funded through the overall programme were continuing beyond this period.

Age UK has since been awarded funding from the Lawn Tennis Association Tennis Foundation to set up walking tennis groups across the Age UK network in 2024/25, further developing the physical activities offered by local Age UK partners.

Digital champion programme

Our four-year digital champion’s programme is being delivered by a total of 40 local Age UK partners. It aims to tackle digital exclusion by recruiting and training digital champion volunteers to provide support for older people to improve their digital skills, as well as

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providing loan technology to those older people without access.

The first cohort of the programme ran from June 2022 to November 2023. It recruited 458 digital champions and reached 63,477 older people through digital awareness raising activities, supported 6,203 older people through digital skills sessions and 680 older people through the tablet loan scheme. Age UK also produced a suite of digital champion e-learning modules designed to help local Age UK partner colleagues and volunteers support older people with their journey to digital inclusion.

In our recently published evaluation, older people reported that the programme had brought back a ‘spark and purpose’ to their lives. It improved their motivation to get online, built their digital knowledge, and as a result, increased their use of technology. Local Age UK partners said that by attending group sessions, older people not only benefited from access to technology and digital skills support, but also had the opportunity to enjoy some time to socialise and build relationships. The loan scheme proved particularly successful in encouraging older people to purchase their own device at the end of the loan period. Cohort 2 began delivery in June 2024.

Warm homes programme

Our long-term partnership with energy suppliers to deliver services that support older people to keep warm and well and maximise their income finished its 13th year of delivery in March 2024. The programme’s work in 2023/24 was kindly funded by E.ON, Shell Energy and Octopus Energy and was overseen by Ofgem, the energy regulator.

The programme awarded £1.8 million to 53 local Age UK partners to deliver 26,824 benefit checks maximising the income of 13,919 older people. Thirty-four local Age UK partners were awarded a total of £355,796 to deliver 3,668 home energy checks to 5,150 older people. These checks offer households energy-related information and tips and energy efficiency equipment such as draught excluders, light bulbs and radiator foils.

The programme identified £59 million in benefits that people were entitled to, which works out as an average of £4,245.05 per person supported. Support provided by home energy checks is expected to result in total fuel bill savings of £85,180.48.

Local Age UK partners in receipt of funding for benefit checks provided important feedback on the impact that not receiving this funding would have had on their service. 41 per cent of local Age UK partners said they would have had longer client waiting lists and 15 per cent would have had to make experienced employees redundant.

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Our impact in numbers

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We support the Age UK network

We spent £13.0 million (2022/23: £12.7 million)

In 2023/24, local and national Age UK partners received £7.4 million in funding from Age UK. This includes a payment from Age UK to each local and national Age UK partner as well as funding to specific partners to deliver programmes, service improvements and organisational support.

The £13.0 million we spent in ‘We support the Age UK network’ includes some of these payments and funding, plus the cost of support provided by Age UK teams for activity in this area. Grant funding for campaigns and research, information and advice, health and care services and wellbeing programmes is included in the total cost of those specific areas and is detailed on page 72 in note 3 to the accounts.

What we do

Age UK is proud to be a part of the Age UK network and we firmly believe that the sum of the Age UK network is so much greater than its individual parts. Age UK partners are vital providers of community services that meet local needs, and they act as a voice for older people, helping older people campaign for change locally and nationally.

We work with Age UK partners to ensure their organisations continue to be well-governed and well-run. We offer practical support such as marketing, website hosting and development, HR support, funding, and communications. We also help local Age UK partners to raise income through supporting their tender bids and fundraising efforts.

Highlights from 2023/24

Our Shared Future

Being part of the Age UK network enables Age UK to achieve far more for older people than we could do alone. We value our relationships with our local and national partner organisations across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales and want to build on what has already been achieved so that we can have greater collective impact in the future.

To make this happen Age UK, the Age England Association (see page 55) and our national partners - Age Scotland, Age Cymru and Age NI - have been working to develop a new Shared Strategy and a related legal agreement, for the whole Age UK Network. Both documents are being co-produced with Age UK network organisations across the country. Throughout 2023/24 and into 2024/25 the Age UK network has had a large-scale conversation, ‘Our Shared Future’, about the difference we want to collectively make in the future.

Age UK and the AEA hosted a network conference, in September 2023, attended by 170 partner colleagues which discussed several aspects of the proposed Shared Strategy and draft legal agreement. This was followed by a two-stage consultation. We shared the proposed Shared Strategy and draft legal agreement with local Age UK partners in October 2023 to get their views. This has been followed up by a second consultation stage which ran from January to March 2024. Collectively, the consultations received official feedback from Boards of Trustees of 92 local Age UK partners during 2023/24. Representatives from 50 local Age UK partner organisations took part in five webinars as part of the process. The Shared Strategy, new legal agreement and a new governance structure for the Age UK network will be introduced in 2024/25.

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Providing cost-of-living support

The cost-of-living response fund programme was able to provide grants to 122 local Age UK partners through 2023/24, helping these partners to deliver 276 services across the network. These services ranged from physical activity groups, day centre support, information and advice services and home support. The funding helped over 406,000 interventions to be delivered to over 94,910 people, helping them to access the services and support they needed.

Advocating for contract uplifts on behalf of the Age UK network

We supported NCVO’s call to action, urging the Government and public bodies to raise contract and grant funding to cover the full costs of service delivery. By drawing on evidence from the Age UK network, we have helped illustrate the long-standing practice of charities subsidising contracts in public service delivery, showing the full impact of years of underfunding beyond the recent pandemic and cost of living increases.

Local Age UK partners have faced increased pressure due to rising living costs, affecting the vulnerable groups they serve. Financial instability, compounded by local authority budget issues and NHS contract challenges, threatens the continuity of their vital services, with some having had to reduce activity or give up contracts, decreasing essential care and support.

Despite these challenges, local Age UK partners remain committed to their communities. However, their resources are stretched thin, risking operational stability. We continue to monitor and support our partners in assessing challenging contract situations and advocate on their behalf, ensuring that they can continue to provide essential services to those in need.

Providing tender writing and evaluation support

We supported 14 local Age UK partners with tender writing and evaluation, with nine being successful, resulting in a collective £6 million in annual income awards and over £20 million throughout the life of the contracts won. Our comprehensive tender writing and bid review service helped our partners create standout submissions in a competitive market. This holistic support ensured our partners submitted strong, competitive bids, enhancing their organisational resilience and better meeting the needs of older people and their communities.

Supporting local Age UK partners to enhance and improve their services and

operations

Our strategic insights work has helped some of our partners look ahead and identify trends and opportunities. Using tools like PESTLE analysis and aging insights, we help them understand market, population and operational changes. This allows them to assess their strategies, adapt to future challenges, and improve their services for older people.

Ensuring quality

Ensuring that the Age UK network is operating legally, safely, and effectively is a vital part of our work. Over the past 12 months, we undertook 79 assessments against our Charity Quality Standard (CQS) leading to a total of 100 Age UK partners being assessed. This standard requires all Age UK network partners, including Age UK, to ensure we all: ensure the safety and wellbeing of older people; value diversity and promote equality and inclusion; protect people’s data; encourage, listen to and act on feedback; plan and review our activities strategically; value our volunteers and staff; and anticipate and manage risk effectively.

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Strategic Report

During this time, the standard was externally assessed by industry leaders, SGS, which involved a rigorous review of working practice through interviews, observation and key documents and records.

Supporting financial governance

We have been supporting Age UK partners to deal with inflationary and cost-of-living issues which are constraining the provision of services that are in demand from an increasing number of older people. This year, we delivered eight Finance Network meetings, reaching 91 local Age UK partners across England (78 per cent of the Age UK Network) at least once.

We ran eight ‘finance for non-finance colleagues’ webinars which were attended by representatives from 50 local Age UK partners across England. In total, we engaged with 103 local Age UK partners (88 per cent) plus all Age Cymru partners and our national partners at least once on financial governance.

Our impact in numbers

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Strategic Report

We work internationally

In 2023/24, we spent £ 17.3 million (2022/23: £21.7 million) supporting older people across the world

£12.2 million of the £17.3 million for international work was raised by Age International from external funders: their generous supporters, United Nations agencies, the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), Foundations and other institutions.

About Age International

Age International is the international arm of the Age UK Group, the UK member of the HelpAge International global network and a member of the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC).

Around the world there are increasing numbers of older people whose basic needs are not being met, and whose human rights are being overlooked, leading to increasing inequality and injustice.

Age International shares Age UK’s vision of a world where every older person feels included and valued. We want to see a world where older people are respected and valued, their voices are heard, their contributions are recognised, their basic needs are met, and their human rights realised.

To do this, we inspire and channel UK, and international, support so older people in challenging situations across the world can improve their lives.

Highlights from 2023/24

Strengthening the humanitarian response for older people in emergencies

We continued to support older people in Ukraine and Afghanistan. We helped older people rebuild their lives after the floods in Pakistan and the earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria, through our membership of the DEC. We also assisted older people displaced due to conflict in Haiti, drought in Venezuela and a heatwave in Pakistan, through our membership of the Start Network.

The Age International Humanitarian Response Fund provided seed funding grants to: carry out a rapid needs assessment in Tigray, Ethiopia; deliver cash grants for older Sudanese refugees; and provide a health-focused response in Gaza.

We shaped the UK Government’s response to emergencies in Ukraine, Ethiopia and Sudan by joining with partners to provide evidence to the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office.

Championing better healthcare and financial security for older people

We enabled older people with disabilities in Tanzania and Indonesia to get wheelchairs, hearing aids and other assistive devices, as well as healthcare, through our ‘ATscale’ project funded by USAID.

We enabled 100 network members and partners from around the world to collaborate to strengthen learning, share evidence and encourage best practice by supporting the development of the HelpAge Healthy Ageing Platform. We also play an important role in advising on funding and policy advocacy for better healthcare.

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Strategic Report

In July 2023, we launched an open letter calling on the Government to include older people in Universal Health Coverage, ahead of an important United Nations (UN) high-level meeting. Nearly 10,000 members of the UK public signed the letter, and we delivered their demands directly to the Government. The UK Government committed to the UN declaration which highlights the growing needs of ageing populations.

Pushing for a UN Convention on the Rights of Older Persons

In April 2023, we joined partners from around the world to advocate for a new convention at the 13th session of the Open-Ended Working Group on Ageing at the UN, in New York. We were pleased when governments agreed to do further work to recognise gaps in the protection of older person’s human rights, and to identify possible responses, including the drafting of a UN Convention on the Rights of Older Persons.

Addressing gender inequality and climate change throughout our work

We communicated stories of older people affected by the climate crisis to our audiences on social media. Our highest-performing post was the story of Dugsiya, 61 years old, and her experience of the drought in Somalia.

We joined partners from around the world at the UN Commission on the Status of Women to highlight the importance of pensions for older women and secured helpful engagement from UK Members of Parliament.

Growing and diversifying our income and profile

Age International has been growing and diversifying our income so we can provide more support to older people around the world. On 1st October, the International Day of Older Persons, we launched a digital-first marketing campaign and posters in Age UK shops, showcasing older people around the world as the pillars of their communities.

We ran a multi-channel, integrated winter appeal asking for donations to help older people affected by drought in East Africa.

We recruited new donors through telemarketing, alongside promoting legacy giving and careful stewardship of existing donors. We also began to build a group of supporters who will take campaigning actions in support of older people worldwide.

Ensuring that Age International is a strong and effective organisation

The new Tripartite Agreement signed by Age UK, Age International, and HelpAge went live on 1 April 2024. This agreement sets out mutually supportive ways of working between the three organisations.

We refreshed Age International’s strategy to align with Age UK’s, taking recommendations from the Age UK older persons’ focus group.

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Our impact in numbers

We are proud to be the UK member of the HelpAge global network. We support HelpAge International, and local and national organisations across the world, to deliver programmes and influencing work for and with older people. With Age International’s support, the HelpAge network has helped improve the lives of millions of older people in the following ways:

Age International has six strategic objectives for 2024/25

You can read more about Age International’s work in their 2023/24 Annual Report and Accounts.

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Our people and our organisation

We want Age UK to be a great place to work and volunteer for our approximately 1,600 employees and over 150,000 volunteers and campaigners. We believe that if we engage our employees and volunteers well, make them feel heard, valued, empowered, safe, and connected to our cause, then together we will be able to do so much more for the older people we are here to support.

Listening to our people

In summer 2023, we worked with leading employee engagement specialists, Best Companies Ltd, to deliver our employee survey. We were benchmarked by Best Companies against other high performing organisations and were awarded a one-star rating indicating we are a ‘very good place to work’. Our 2023 survey results identified three key areas of focus: leadership, fair deal and personal growth and we developed an action plan to respond to what our colleagues were telling us.

Listening to our colleagues, involving them in decision making, and responding to concerns or ideas that they have is important to us. This year, our CEO visited all our hubs to meet and listen to colleagues, he visited several Age UK shops and he regularly travelled across the UK to meet with local Age UK partner colleagues. Our leadership team host a monthly employee briefing and this year we ran a festival of ideas to enable our colleagues to engage with the development of Age UK’s strategy and the creation of our new values (see page 4). We set up four employee resource groups and three staff peer support groups and we have introduced an employee forum for our shops.

Throughout 2023/24, we consulted with colleagues to design our pay policy, with the ambition to make pay at Age UK more transparent and to implement a consistent grading framework that links us to market medians across the charity sector. We started a review of our overall pay and reward structure for our shop colleagues which has continued into 2024/25. To help support personal growth at Age UK, we launched two development funds, for personal development and strategy development.

Developing our new values

As part of the development of our new strategy (see page 4), this year we worked with colleagues across Age UK and the Age UK network to develop new values which we believed would best complement our new organisational strategy, the shared network strategy, and our future direction of travel.

This involved various forms of collaboration including: the festival of ideas (see above); a culture and values workstream as part of the Our Shared Future discussions (see page 18); a values squad with representatives from across Age UK; and a colleague conversation to help us choose our fourth value - inclusive. You can read more about our organisational values on page 5.

Supporting our volunteers

By the end of 2023/24, we had a total of 3,969 formal volunteers in our shops and 5,739 across the rest of the national charity, with 4,414 supporting our telephone friendship service (see page 14). The number of our campaigners (informal volunteers) rose to 147,248. In August 2023, we started rolling out our new volunteer hub across Age UK. This hub has improved volunteer recruitment and onboarding, making the process easier and quicker for

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volunteers while reducing the administrative burden on employees and enhancing the initial volunteer experience with Age UK.

This year we have worked with a Volunteer Management Consultant to help us shape our vision for volunteering at Age UK. Ten foundational streams of work were identified which will be incorporated into a long-term volunteer strategy.

Supporting diversity, equity and inclusion

In 2023/24, we delivered an organisational wide Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) consultation to better understand the needs of our workforce and how we could strengthen DEI across our business strands. The consultation findings have been embedded into our new business strategy so that DEI is recognised and resourced as a mission critical priority.

We are committed to attracting diverse talent to Age UK and building outstanding teams. This year we have reviewed our recruitment systems, policies and processes and have implemented a change programme to drive forward best practice. As part of this programme, we introduced anonymisation into the first stage of our recruitment process. This has already yielded positive results, reducing the potential for bias in shortlisting decisions and improving hiring outcomes for candidates from minoritised groups. We also delivered three internship programmes, diversifying entry pathways into the organisation, and providing work placements for talent from a range of underrepresented groups.

Lastly, we have delivered a series of DEI events, building community across our workforce and raising awareness and understanding of a wide range of issues including mental health, racial equity and justice, religious inclusivity and menopause awareness. Our events have driven continuous work across Age UK, including external advocacy and campaigning led by our influencing division in relation to the Home Office Windrush scandal.

Supporting colleagues with disabilities

Age UK is committed to creating a diverse, inclusive, respectful and safe work environment where all people are treated fairly, with dignity and respect. We recognise that disability inclusion is integral to our work. This is about more than hiring disabled people, it is about embracing difference and providing an environment in which all employees can participate and thrive.

We are a Level 2 Disability Confident Employer. We use the Guaranteed Interview Scheme to ensure all disabled jobseekers who meet the essential criterial for the role they are applying for are invited to interview where practicable.

We actively encourage jobseekers and employees to declare disabilities and health conditions to ensure they can access appropriate support and reasonable adjustments. Disability inclusion is also effectively embedded into all people management processes so that there is a continual dialogue about health and wellbeing between employees and their line managers.

We measure disability throughout the recruitment process and people’s career journey at Age UK, so that we can identify if there are any differences or disparities in the experiences of disabled and non-disabled jobseekers and employees. We actively use the information gathered to inform and improve our practices.

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Employment policy and pay

Recruiting, retaining and motivating employees are critical to Age UK’s sustainability and success. Age UK’s remuneration policy recognises the differences between our charitable and trading activity, and we benchmark the salaries we offer against charitable and commercial sectors as appropriate.

We have an annual review process called My Time which supports colleagues to shape their personal objectives, in line with team, divisional and organisational objectives and to have regular sessions with their manager to discuss progress against their objectives, their professional development and their wellbeing. The My Time process is not linked to pay.

Fair pay for equal work was a central focus of work to develop a new pay policy and framework (see page 24). The policy was implemented in April 2024, and we ensured all of our non-shop colleagues were aligned to the new framework. We have a different pay framework for our shop-based colleagues and in April 2024, we introduced a higher pay increase for those colleagues to reflect the increase in the National Living Wage.

Keeping our people safe

We have widened our definition of safeguarding at Age UK to include self-harm and suicide and we are seeing significant uptick in demand in this space, especially as we continue to roll out our training and conduct refresher training on safeguarding for all colleagues that take calls from older people and their families.

In 2023/24, we handled 3,875 referrals to our dedicated team – an increase from 1,857 in the year before. Our biggest number of referrals come via The Silver Line Helpline (see page 14) due to the nature of the service they provide. The highest safeguarding risks that we see in our referrals are suicidal ideation and domestic abuse.

We created a new domestic abuse lead role this year to do targeted work in this space to improve our national and local responses to beneficiaries, colleagues or volunteers experiencing domestic abuse.

We have now secured funding for our new customer relationship management system which means we will have much firmer control of our data, allowing us to more effectively follow up and report on safeguarding activity and manage risks as we see them arise.

Supporting our people to grow

We are committed to building a self-directed learning culture at Age UK. This year we once again offered colleagues the opportunity to apply for funding through two employee development funds. The funds empower colleagues in their development and support them to build skills and capabilities for their future at Age UK. One fund supports people with development opportunities which deliver against their personal and professional objectives, and the second allows development opportunities against areas where Directors have identified organisational need or skills gaps.

We also began the early stages of creating a leadership development programme that we hope to roll out to leaders at Age UK and across the Age UK network in 2025. We have also been developing our mentoring programme which will launch in 2024/25.

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Strategic Report

Fundraising

A wholehearted thank you to everyone who donated and fundraised for Age UK this year. Together we raised £68.1 million to fund our vital practical services and campaigning for a world where every older person is included and valued. Fundraising continues to be our main source of gross and net income as a charity.

The fundraising environment

The wider economic climate has continued to be challenging this year, and the charitable sector continued to face increased demand for support as well as increased costs for delivering charitable work and income generation. Individuals and organisations, facing challenging times themselves, have continued to be more discerning with their charitable support. Within this context, Age UK’s fundraising performance remained strong, thanks to our loyal supporters, staff and volunteers, and critically, the older people who are willing to share their own personal stories to inspire donations.

Highlights from 2023/24

We received £27.6 million from gifts in people’s wills this year, meaning this continues to be our largest source of income. Leaving a gift to Age UK in your will really does help ensure we continue to support older people for many years into the future. Our legacy marketing this year attracted 30,840 people expressing an interest in leaving a gift in their will to Age UK.

We raised £22.4 million from over 200,000 people this year through one-off donations, regular giving, community fundraising and through our lotteries, raffles and events including the Leeds Abbey Dash 10k. Whilst many people had to tighten their belts this year, we were overwhelmed by the loyalty of our supporters who have kept giving and even increased their support.

Newer channels for Age UK, such as private site fundraising, are showing strong potential for recruiting new supporters of more diverse ages and backgrounds – all finding their varied reasons to connect with our cause.

This year we secured £18.2 million in gifts, grants and contracts from companies, trusts, philanthropists and grant givers. We are delighted to welcome many new ‘high value’ supporters this year, including Dunelm Soft Furnishings Ltd who announced Age UK as their new national charity partner in January 2024 aiming to raise £2 million over the next three years. We welcomed the Rothesay Foundation, who made an initial gift of £0.4 million to help fund our vital benefits advice work, helping older people claim all the financial support they entitled to – which can be life-changing. We are also grateful for the support of The National Lottery Community Fund’s Community Organisations Cost of Living Fund, which supported the Age UK Advice Line as well as directly supporting the work of local Age UK partners in their communities.

As with our other audiences, our high-value partners remain loyal, many continuing their multi-year support for Age UK in 2023/24, including The Eighty Eight Foundation, Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust, Emanuel Hospital, LTA Tennis Foundation, the Seafarers’ Charity, The Julia and Hans Rausing Trust, Rothesay Foundation, E.ON Next Energy Ltd, Octopus Energy Ltd, Shell, Lloyds Banking Group, Britain’s Gas Distribution Networks, M&G plc, and Sport England.

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Our fundraising strategy

We continue to be ambitious for our fundraising in the year ahead. Critical to this is ensuring we are agile enough to respond to a changing financial and political environment, with factors beyond our control. Within this context we will focus on:

How we do our fundraising

Our aim at Age UK is to raise funds in the most effective way whilst also ensuring we align with charity law and other relevant compliance requirements, including notably data and privacy. Our Fundraising Charter reflects our commitment to high ethical standards and practices.

We take a supporter-led approach to our fundraising, offering a variety of ways for people to donate to Age UK, so that as many people as possible can find a way that works for them. This includes making one-off or repeat donations in-person or online, taking on a fundraising challenge, buying a lottery or raffle ticket, or leaving a gift to us in their will.

Ensuring positive fundraising

We work to ensure that engaging with Age UK is a positive experience, and all our donors and fundraisers are treated with respect, fairness, honesty, and clarity. Age UK is regulated by the Fundraising Regulator and complies with the Code of Fundraising Practice and the Fundraising Promise. We have had no Fundraising regulatory investigations or rulings during the last year.

We also communicate and collaborate with the wider fundraising community and several professional bodies to encourage and promote the highest standard of fundraising practices across the sector.

Fundraising through third parties

We deliver our fundraising activities both in-house and via specialist third-party agencies if required including, but not limited to, fulfilment services, media agencies, creative agencies, face-to-face fundraisers and call centres.

Age UK only works with organisations that align with our values. Contracts are in place with all our third-party agencies, and we require strict adherence to applicable laws. We monitor our third-party agencies regularly.

Age UK has used third-party fundraising agencies this year to deliver face-to-face lottery and regular-giving recruitment at private sites and for inbound telephone responses to our adverts and appeals. We did not carry out any outbound telemarketing within this financial year.

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How we monitor fundraising

Age UK uses a variety of fundraising channels to engage our diverse range of supporters to and provide updates on the impact of their donations. We also gratefully receive donations of clothes and goods to our shops. All fundraising activity is subject to approval processes that are supported by our Fundraising Compliance Manager and Legal Team. Our third-party fundraisers are monitored by call listening, mystery shopping and site observations. The performance of fundraising campaigns and our third-party suppliers is regularly reviewed and is overseen by a quality and compliance assurance process.

We consistently seek feedback from supporters and internal and external stakeholders to deliver a high standard of performance and compliance.

Protecting the privacy and data of our supporters

We remain committed to protecting and respecting the privacy of our supporters. We continue to work closely with partners across the Age UK network to ensure that all individuals’ data is captured, stored, and used compliantly and with the utmost care.

Privacy by design, and the best interests of those we serve, are at the heart of this work. We have focused on strengthening the existing collaboration and processes with our suppliers and agencies in respect of personal data. We have continued to adjust our privacy policy to better reflect the nature, scope, context, and purposes of processing that the organisation undertakes. The full version of our privacy policy can be found at: www.ageuk.org.uk/help/privacy-policy/.

In June 2023, one of our suppliers was subject to a sophisticated data breach which impacted 206,000 supporters. All supporters affected were informed as were the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and other regulators for the breach of the Data Protection Act 2018. The supplier no longer holds any data for Age UK. Age UK is committed to the security of our supporters’ personal data. Learning from this incident has informed further improvements to ensure the protection of data processed or held by third party suppliers.

Addressing people’s concerns

During 2023/24 we received 641 complaints about our fundraising. Of those received, 329 (51 per cent) were made about our lottery and raffle, this represents 0.2 percent of our player base. We have seen an increase in our fundraising complaints since last year, and it is acknowledged that for some of our supporters, being asked to donate during this prolonged period of economic pressures, felt too much of a stretch. We appreciate all donations, especially those we have received during these difficult times when they are so needed. We take on board all feedback and would like to assure everyone that we value complaints as they help us shape our future fundraising.

Protecting vulnerable people

Our policy on fundraising with people in vulnerable circumstances is followed by all our fundraisers. Our Fundraising Compliance Manager reviews key fundraising materials and practices and provides ongoing training to our fundraisers, and third parties who are fundraising on our behalf, to ensure protecting vulnerable people is front of mind across all activities. In addition, we incorporate the Chartered Institute of Fundraising’s ‘Treating donors fairly’ guidance into our fundraising.

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Trading

We operate a large network of charity shops whose profits directly support our charitable work. AgeCo Limited, a commercial subsidiary, offers financial services and independent living solutions designed for older people and, when affordable, the profits from its activities are gifted to Age UK to fund our charitable work.

Retail

Our retail estate is making a bigger contribution to Age UK both financially, with a 5 per cent increase in income (from £37.3 million in 2022/23 to £39.5 million in 2023/24) and also reputationally, through our collaboration with local Age UK partners, brand awareness and supporting the charity’s campaigns.

Continued pressures on retail resulted in a rise in costs but this was, and continues to be, managed effectively. Our increase in sales reflected the public's ongoing search for affordable shopping options amidst the cost-of-living crisis. With the help of our sustainability campaign headed by the Wombles, we highlighted to the public the importance of thinking about the environment by donating and supporting our shops to help reduce waste and items going to landfill.

Our core business relies on selling donated goods, but we have continued to develop our bought-in goods sales in our shops with a 12 per cent growth in 2023/24. This year we are aiming to expand our offering further in our shops with an overall 37 per cent increase on our 2023/24 income for the sale of bought-in-goods and an 8 per cent share of our projected income for 2024/25, to help support the slight decline in the donated business.

Our online business also grew in line with our strategic objectives and achieved a like-for-like increase in line with our ecommerce five-year strategy. In 2024/25, we are planning a wider emphasis on promoting preloved items from our shops online, to ensure that we are making the most possible from every donation and to strengthen our sustainability objectives.

One of the main initiatives that has helped us to deliver our key retail objectives for the year has been a new infrastructure of tills across all shops. This has helped Age UK to improve efficiency, reduce paperwork and has given us the confidence to increase our gift aid expectations by 40 per cent for the year 2024/25.

We are also aiming to make the donor experience more streamlined by offering our customers the opportunity to download their gift aid card on to the My Charity app. This will help make their donation journey as simple as possible and offer additional information about Age UK at their fingertips.

Looking ahead, we are engaging in an acquisition plan to open new Age UK stores in selected areas of the country, and we aim to work closely with local Age UK partners to ensure that we are providing the best service possible for older people.

In 2023/24, we managed to prevent five million items going to landfill and saved over 56 million kilos of CO2e across our retail estate. In 2024/25, we plan to spread the sustainable message far and wide explaining to our customers how their support can make a difference.

Our Rag 24 project, which will move our retail business into becoming a nearly independent rag collector, continues to be a key priority. Rag is the term used for donated clothes items

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that we are not able to sell, for example if they are badly stained or damaged. Rag is an important source of income for all charity shops who are able to sell these items to textile recyclers. We want Age UK to make the most out of all donations, including items that are usually ragged with independent rag collectors. Our aim is to reduce as much as possible from going to landfill and to have the first of many carbon neutral charity shops.

Age Co

Age Co has continued to progress with its turnaround plan, having spent the last two years right-sizing the business and laying the foundations for growth. In 2023/24, Age Co’s trading income grew for the first time in ten years and the £2.7 million profit generated (2022/23: £2.0 million), created a significant gift aid donation to Age UK to support its charitable work.

The main focus in the year was the migration of the home, car and standalone breakdown insurance customers from the long-term partner, Ageas, to the carefully selected new partner, LV=. With migrations of this type, it is expected that more customers than usual will choose not to renew their insurance policy with the new provider, but due to the efforts of the project teams across the three organisations, the customer loss has been kept to a minimum.

As well as concentrating on the existing product portfolio, in January 2024, Age Co launched a travel insurance proposition in partnership with AllClear, the UK's most trusted travel insurance provider[1] . This will help to expand the growing customer base. These two changes to our insurance portfolio were supported by new brand and insurance campaigns and activity.

Working with local Age UK partners, Age Co is developing a distribution strategy that will provide more of Age UK’s customers access to our home assistance products - including stairlifts, bathroom adaptations, personal alarms and incontinence products.

As a regulated business, the team at Age Co successfully delivered consumer duty reporting to the deadlines set by the Financial Conduct Authority. To further support our commitment to excellent customer service, we set up a new consumer view panel which asks older people for their views on the products currently available, those that could be made available and how we can make products better. This customer focused work has resulted in all of our products being rated as excellent or world class by our customers[2] .

Trading Principles

Age Co will offer products and services which are good for older people: We ensure our products genuinely have features and benefits (including the service surrounding their purchase and/or use) which we can evidence make them especially suitable for our customers, measured against our own knowledge of the needs of older people, not just benchmarked against standards in the relevant market sector.

1 Source - Travel Insurance | Voted UK's Number 1 for Customer Care | AllClear Travel Based on Trustpilot reviews of all companies in the Travel Insurance Company category that have over 70,000 reviews as of January 2024. AllClear Gold Plus achieved a Which? Best Buy.

2 Customer Experience metrics source: based on monthly average scores from direct customer feedback surveys – received across all products and a range of journey points. Insights include likelihood to recommend (NPS – Net Promoter Score) and how easy we are to deal with (NES – Net Effort Score).

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Age Co’s prices will be fair and appropriate: Age Co’s prices will be fair – we will offer good value for money. Age Co’s prices will be appropriate – we will ensure our offering includes price points which are appropriate to people on low or moderate incomes.

The profit returned by Age Co to the Charity will be reasonable and acceptable: Just because the charity uses the income from Age Co’s activities for a good cause this does not justify ‘excessive profits’, especially when our customers are the charity’s beneficiaries.

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Financial review

Age UK’s income available for charitable activities (net income) fell from £64.8 million in 2022/23 to £58.8 million in 2023/24. Whilst most income streams saw growth year on year, our total income dropped from £123.2 million to £121.7 million, driven mainly by a reduction of grant income within Age International as the DEC funding from the highly successful Ukraine appeal fell, and following Age Cymru’s departure from the group. The fall in net income was also driven by an increase in the cost of raising funds, which increased by £4.5 million. This was both due to investment in our future income growth and inflationary pressures, as the cost-of-living crisis continued.

Age UK responded to the continued crisis for older people by increasing our unrestricted charitable spending, utilising our reserves to sustain our activities. We granted £7.4 million to local and national Age UK partners to fund their work to help older people locally and we increased the grant to HelpAge International to respond to the needs of older people around the world.

Throughout the Strategic Report and in this Financial Review, the charity’s trading income continues to be expressed in net terms rather than gross, unless stated otherwise. Age UK’s accounts are consolidated, which means they include the income (and costs) of its charitable and trading subsidiaries. Age UK’s network of charity shops and Age Co generate significant income, but the cost of doing so is considerable. Their respective costs include their rent, electricity and maintenance of the charity shop estate and the marketing of financial services, Independent Living Solutions products and other commercial products and services. When considered at gross level only, this can make it appear that the charity has far more income available to spend on charitable activities than it does. We spent 111 per cent of our net resources on charitable activities (£65.2 million), following the designation of funds in 2021/22 to 2022/23.

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Strategic Report
Statement of Financial
Activities Summary and
net calculations		 Income
£’000
Expenditure
£’000
2024
Net
£’000
2023
Net
£’000
Donations and gifts 10,743
(6,309)
4,434
5,722
Legacies 27,564
(4,976)
22,588
20,551
Grants, corporates and
trusts		 18,178
(3,187)
14,991
23,318
Lotteries and raffles 11,638
(8,027)
3,611
3,505
Total fundraising 68,123
(22,499)
45,624
53,096
Income from charitable
activities		 3,427
3,427
2,507
Net income from trading 8,890
8,890
8,543
Investments 837
837
707
Net loss on disposal of
fixed assets		 (1)
(1)
(11)
Net resources available
for charitable activities		 81,276
(22,499)
58,777
64,842
Total charitable
expenditure		 (65,153)
(72,133)
Trading analysis
Trading activity 49,068
(40,178)
8,890
8,543
Grants, Corporates and
trusts analysis
Age International 10,765
(1,494)
9,271
13,975
Age UK 7,413
(1,693)
5,720
7,116
Age Cymru -
-
-
1,575
The Silverline -
-
-
652
Total 18,178
(3,187)
14,991
23,318
Charitable activity
analysis
% of net resources available for charitable activities
72%
76%
% of income spent on charitable activity
111%
111%
% of fundraising income available for charitable activities
67%
72%

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Strategic Report

Highlights from 2023/24

As we emerged from the Coronavirus pandemic in 2021/22, it appeared briefly that life for older people may be starting to look brighter. Sadly, the cost-of-living crisis has, for many, been even more devastating and we have continued to work hard to ensure we can continue to support those who need us most.

2022/23 saw us reach our highest level of spend on charitable activities in five years. We used the funds generated from our highly successful Covid appeal and the savings generated from our financial recovery plan to support older people through the cost-of-living crisis.

Whilst the reduction in our net income in 2023/24 has required us to reduce spending back to levels more in line with previous years, our commitment to supporting older people through this crisis has not wavered. We have re-considered the calculation of our free reserves and scrutinised our restricted funds, freeing up an additional £8.8m to be spent on our activities – both supporting older people in the here and now, and investing in our fundraising activity to shore up our future income streams. This has allowed us to increase our unrestricted spend year-on-year, enabling us to continue to deliver our vital support to older people despite rising costs.

Overall, our operating deficit of £6.4 million demonstrates our continued commitment to supporting older people through the current cost-of-living crisis. The deficit this year was a planned deficit within our reserves target, however, we are cognisant that we need to return to a break-even budget. With this in mind, we are looking at our ways of working so we are as effective and efficient as possible. This includes reviewing our income generation strategy to ensure that we are investing our money in the areas which will generate the best return on investment and reviewing our operating model to ensure we are structured in the best way to enable us to deliver our ambitious new strategy.

Our new strategy has been devised hand-in-hand with older people and we are committed to ensuring that our operations and our financial resources enable us to deliver on these strategic aims and objectives, underpinned by our organisational values.

Fundraising

Net income from fundraising fell from £53.1 million to £45.6 million.

The fundraising environment has continued to be challenging in 2023/24 as the cost-of-living crisis has impacted donors’ ability to give as well as our cost of raising funds. The reduction in net fundraising income reflects a reduction in gross income of £5.6m, driven mainly by a reduction in grants, corporates and trusts, with a further £1.9m driven by increasing costs.

We are hugely grateful to our donors, who have continued to support us through this time, for allowing us to maintain our gross income from donations and gifts at £10.7 million (2022/23: £10.9 million). Inflation and investment into our fundraising activities has increased our costs in this area, resulting in a reduction in net income from £5.7 million to £4.4 million.

Legacies defied market trends, increasing year-on-year from £20.6 million in 2022/23 to £22.6 million in 2023/24. Legacies remain our largest source of income.

Grants, corporates and trusts fell from £23.3 million to £15.0 million. Of this reduction, £4.7 million related to Age International grants, with income from the DEC falling from £5.7 million

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to £2.2 million and an increase in the value of allocated costs. Age Cymru left the group on 1 April 2024, having contributed £1.7 million of the prior year income in this area. The majority of the remaining difference relates to a £1.2 million reduction in funding from Sport England due to the phasing of the income under this programme.

Lotteries and Raffles have generated a small level of growth this year, increasing from £3.5 million to £3.6 million despite an increase in the cost base.

We have continued to build on our investment in fundraising activity, and this has ensured that our unrestricted fundraising income has grown year on year from £45.8 million to £47.5 million, giving us a strong base to build from as we drive our bold income generation ambitions in 2024/25 onwards.

Trading

Gross income from trading activities has increased to £49.1 million (2022/23: £46.1 million), with net income increasing to £8.9 million (2022/23: £8.5 million).

Our charity shop portfolio has had another highly successful year as people have searched for affordable shopping options amidst the cost-of-living crisis. Gross income increased from £37.3 million in 2022/23 to £39.5 million in 2023/24. Costs of running the shop network have also significantly increased, however, meaning that net income from charity shops has decreased from £6.2 million in 2022/23 to £6.0 million in 2023/24.

Net commission income generated through sales of financial services and Independent Living Solutions (ILS) products increased from £2 million in 2022/23 to £2.8m in 2023/24. Age Co Limited saw its net income from financial services increase to £2 million (2022/23: £1.1 million). This is mainly related to a profit share payment of £0.8 million relating to previous years’ sales under the Ageas contract, which crystalised in 2023/24.

Net income from Age Co for the ILS portfolio fell to £0.8 million (2022/23: £1 million), driven by an increase in allocated costs.

Income from charitable activities

Income from charitable activities increased to £3.4 million (2022/23: £2.5 million).

This includes income from our legacy Gifted Housing Service and money from energy companies to fund our vital Warm Homes programme. Income received under the Warm Homes programme has increased from £2 million to £2.7 million year-on-year.

Charitable expenditure

Charitable expenditure returned to pre-pandemic levels with expenditure of £65.2 million (2022/23: £72.4 million).

In 2022/23, we distributed funding received from our highly successful Covid appeal to our local and national Age UK partners, giving out £5 million to support older people through the cost-of-living crisis. Whilst the reduction in our net income has necessitated a reduction in expenditure, we know that the cost-of-living crisis continues to impact older people. We have responded by continuing to utilise our reserves to sustain our activity – increasing our unrestricted spend year-on-year. This has allowed us to maintain our vital services for older people, despite rising costs.

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Funding and finance

Balance Sheet

Balance sheet net assets reduced from £65.6 million to £57.1 million. The £8.4 million overall reduction in the balance sheet comprises:

Net current assets fell by £2.2 million in total on the prior year, made up as follows:

Pension scheme

In October 2012, the two final salary pension schemes of Age Concern England and Help the Aged merged into one scheme with two sections. Both sections of the scheme are closed to new entrants and future accrual.

The most recent full actuarial valuation took place on 1 April 2022, and this has been reworked and projected forward using the 2024 FRS 102 assumptions. The 2022 triennial valuation showed an improvement resulting in the reduction in the length of the deficit recovery plan compared to the prior valuation in 2019.

Both sections of the scheme are valued and reported in accordance with FRS 102 and advised by scheme actuaries. The scheme showed both sections of the scheme to be in an assets position at year end 31 March 2024 and 2023, which has continued to not be recognised on the balance sheet in line with accounting standards.

The discount rate remained consistent year on year at 4.9 per cent (2022/23: 4.9 per cent). The projected RPI assumption decreased by 0.05 per cent to 3.2 per cent. Following the 2022 triennial valuation, it was agreed to maintain the deficit contributions at their existing level despite the improved funding position, with annual contributions of £3.7 million.

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Age UK acknowledges its pension obligations and has a clear strategy to manage the technical provision deficit which includes a deficit reduction plan designed to ensure that the scheme is fully funded using assumptions that contain a margin for prudence. This is subject to continued discussion and agreement with the Pension Trustee Board. Both schemes are currently also in an assets position on a technical provisions basis.

The fact that both schemes continue to show a surplus according to the FRS 102 assumptions gives comfort over the long-term trajectory of the scheme.

Reserves policy

Age UK’s reserves policy is reviewed annually and continues to be based on a free reserves approach. Total funds held at 31 March 2024 were £57.1 million, which compares to £65.6 million at 31 March 2023. This includes total endowment funds of £3.4 million (2022/23: £3.2 million), restricted funds of £2.5 million (2022/23: £6.3 million) and designated funds of £16.6 million (2022/2023: £19.5 million).

Designated funds have previously consisted of the fixed asset funds which represent the net book value of fixed assets, including investment properties, as well as funds separately designated (see note 16). During the year, the trustees determined that the value of investment properties, the net of the value of the Gifted Housing provision held against Fixed Asset funds, should not form part of designated funds but should be counted as Free Reserves. This represents the fact that Age UK would be able to sell these properties or use them to secure loan finance.

Free reserves at 31 March 2024 were £34.7 million (2022/23: £36.6 million). Free reserves are defined as unrestricted funds which have not been earmarked and may be used generally to further the charity’s objectives. For the purposes of this calculation, the pension reserve is added back to the total unrestricted. Although the pension liability is outside of the definition of free reserves, deficit payments due have been factored into the target figure and forecasts.

In 2022, Age UK designated £10.7 million of reserves which had been built up from Covid appeal income, commercial recovery and internal cost savings. £3.4 million remained within designated funds as at 31 March 2023. During 2023/24, the new strategy was developed, resulting in some changes to programmes for which funds had been designated. The Trustees have refreshed the old designations and added a further £6.0 million to designated funds to fund the initiatives required to launch our new strategy.

During the year, the Trustees reviewed the reserves policy. This included benchmarking Age UK’s target reserves against other charities with similar operating structures, with a view to implementing an average of the peer group. Following this review, the Trustees determined that the basis for the reserves policy should change from a nine-month forward view of free reserves, factoring in risks and its strategic plans to a risk-based approach, holding three to four months’ income in free reserves. Applying this principle, Age UK has a target free reserves range of £30 million to £40 million.

We have also refreshed our classification of investment properties within free reserves, bringing investment properties, net of the donor support provision into free reserves. This has increased free reserves by £7.1m in 2023/24.

At 31 March 2024, Age UK’s free reserves were within our target free reserves range.

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Going Concern

Age UK continues to prepare its financial statements on the basis that it is a going concern.

In doing so, it has considered the current cost of living crisis, the high inflation levels and the other business risks it faces and has put in place a number of actions to manage these.

Whilst the deficit in the current year was a planned deficit within our reserves target, we are cognisant that we need to return to a break-even budget. We do expect a further deficit in the 2024/25 year as we continue to invest in our strategic development, utilising our available free reserves, however, we are looking deeply at our ways of working so we are as effective and efficient as possible. This includes reviewing our income generation strategy to ensure that we are investing our money in the areas which will generate the best return on investment and reviewing our operating model to ensure we are structured in the best way to enable us to deliver our ambitious new strategy. A robust three-year planning process has been carried out which looked at projected cash flows and reserves requirements over that period.

The Trustees believe that Age UK is well placed to manage its financing and other operational risks satisfactorily and have a reasonable expectation that Age UK will have adequate resources to continue in operation for the foreseeable future and meet its liabilities as they fall due, until at least March 2026. They, therefore, consider it appropriate to adopt the going concern basis of accounting in preparing the financial statements.

Investment policy

The charity’s overall investment objective adopted by the Trustees is to maintain and enhance the value of the portfolio in real terms to enable the charity to realise its charitable objectives in the future. It seeks to protect the after-inflation value of the charity’s assets whilst being in line with the charity’s risk appetite which is defined as medium risk. The Finance Risk and Audit Committee (FRAC), with the support of the Investment Committee is responsible for reviewing the investment policy and ensuring it remains appropriate.

As at 31 March 2024 Age UK had £36.9 million invested in readily tradable securities with a liquid secondary market. The investments are managed by Sarasin and Goldman Sachs in a close to 50/50 split designed to reduce risk and consist of one long-term portfolio, one medium term portfolio and several smaller endowment funds. These investments underpin the free reserves available to the organisation.

Both managers work within the boundaries of the same investment policy but employ slightly different strategies which complement each other whilst still offering additional diversification. In June 2024, the decision was taken to move the long-term portfolio from Sarasin to Cazenove.

The investment portfolios contained just over £34.1 million and are invested in government and corporate bonds, index linked gilts, UK commercial property, global equities, alternative assets, and cash. Any non-Sterling investments are 70 per cent hedged back to sterling. Age UK also holds endowed funds with a market value as at 31 March 2024 of £2.8 million. These funds are invested in the Sarasin Endowments fund from which we receive income on a quarterly basis.

The investment gain of £2.7 million represents a significant improvement on the prior year loss of £3.8 million. Both managers believe that the allocation of the current investment portfolio is appropriate to meet our investment objective.

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Risk management and assurance

Trustees have overall responsibility for the management of risk within Age UK. Trustees view the management of risk as an essential discipline to support Age UK in achieving its strategic aims and objectives. This includes setting the risk appetite for the charity and ensuring that there are reasonable procedures in place to identify, mitigate and manage risks, including fraud risk and other irregularities.

During 2023/24, the Finance, Risk and Audit Committee (FRAC) and Trustees have overseen Age UK’s activities to ensure appropriate risk management and internal control systems are in place.

The FRAC is also responsible for the annual internal audit plan and scrutinises reports from the internal auditors. It monitors the implementation of recommendations raised from audits and the effectiveness of internal controls.

KPMG were appointed as internal auditor from April 2023. Crowe served as external auditor. On the following pages we have shared what we consider to be our principal risks and the context surrounding each risk.


context surrounding each risk.
Risk Mitigations and Actions
Income and Financial Stability-
if insufficient income is received
for the charity to achieve its
strategic objects and maintain its
operations, this could negatively
impact our support for older
people.		 • Annual going concern exercise to stress test
potential impact appropriate level of reserves
• Review of income generation and operating model
to improve efficiency and reduce our cost base
• Monitoring of asset management to ensure
investments are managed appropriately
• Reporting to FRAC on a quarterly basis
• Annual budget setting process, including review
from senior management and Trustees to ensure
plans are within financial means
Network- if we do not work
strongly together as a part of the
Age UK network, we may not
efficiently and effectively deliver
the services that older people
need.		 • Working in partnership with local and national Age
UK partners to establish a new network agreement
and Shared Strategy
• Commissioned local Age UK partners to deliver
wellbeing programmes
Cyber Security- cyber incidents
executed by external or internal
parties negatively impact the
confidentiality, integrity and
availability of the charity’s
information systems and data and
negatively impact the support
provided to older people.		 • Information protection strategy developed to drive a
programme of change across Age UK focused on
information protection maturity
• Significant progress in delivering our information
protection roadmap
• Quick and effective responses to cyber incidents

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Strategic Report
Safeguarding- vulnerable
beneficiaries, supporters,
volunteers and employees could
be put at risk due to a lack of
safeguarding awareness or
training.		 • Governance and reporting structures for
safeguarding have been made more robust
• We have a procedure to review all serious cases
and implement lessons learned
• Mandatory safeguarding training is in place for
volunteers and employees
• Safeguarding audits are carried out and
recommendations are implemented to ensure good
safeguarding practice is in operation
Staff wellbeing- Reduced staff
wellbeing due to hybrid working
and the ability to recruit and retain
staff and volunteers due to
national shortages across the
charity sector could lead to a loss
of effectiveness in the workforce
and a detrimental effect on
charitable activity.		 • Continue to prioritise wellbeing, particularly mental
wellbeing
• Continue to provide training for our Mental Health
First Aiders as well as our managers
• Conducting regular surveys of our colleagues to
sense-check how people are feeling and obtain
valuable feedback to help us consider our future
strategy
Sustainability of our service
partners- if our service delivery
partners both in the UK and
internationally suffer from
financial hardship, it may prevent
them from delivering our jointly
agreed strategy. Internationally
factors of inflation, rising cost-of-
living and cost of wages is
making financial sustainability
harder, and the donor funding
landscape is changing. Some
local partners are being
challenged due to a reduction in
funding from their local
authorities.		 • Work is ongoing to understand and advise on the
financial stability of the Age UK network
• Monthly discussions take place with HelpAge
International which contracts with the service partner
in the countries where Age International work

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Strategic Report

Governance

Age UK is a charity constituted as a company limited by guarantee (registered charity number 1128267 and registered company number 6825798) and therefore subject to charity, trust, and company law. This Report of the Trustees incorporates the Strategic report and the Directors’ report required under the Companies Act 2006 (Strategic report and Directors’ report) Regulations 2013. A separate Impact Report will provide greater insight into the impact that Age UK has delivered for older people in the UK during 2023/2024.

Age UK is governed by a Memorandum and Articles of Association which sets out its charitable objectives:

The intention of the collective outcome of these objectives is the promotion of the wellbeing of older people.

Age UK Board of Trustees

Our Board of Trustees (the Board), who are also Directors of the Charity for the purposes of the Companies Act, have overall responsibility for the strategy, management, and control of Age UK (the Charity and its subsidiaries). Our Chief Executive, working with the Executive Team, is responsible for delivering the Board’s vision and strategy and for the day-to-day operations.

As of 31 March 2024, the Board was made up of 13 Trustees.

During the year to 31 March 2024, our Articles of Association allowed for up to 14 Trustees including:

All Trustees are required to demonstrate that they meet the skills needed by Age UK, which are set out in the Trustee role profile. Appointments are led by the Nominations and Governance Committee which makes recommendations to the Board.

We recruit as required based on an evaluation of the balance of the diverse skills and experience needed to govern the Charity in the long term, ensuring that the Board is fit for purpose and brings a diversity of knowledge and experience. New Trustees are recruited

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following external advertisement, and their skills and competencies are assessed against the role profile. They serve for an initial term of two years and, subject to review and the approval of the Board, may serve for two further three-year terms.

All new Trustees are given an induction programme which is tailored to their needs. Individual Trustees have regular appraisals with the Chair of the Board; this enables any training and development needs to be identified and addressed.

No new Trustees were appointed during the year 2023/2024.

The Board has been very focused on strategic issues, horizon-scanning and reviewing impact and budgets in the context of developing Age UK’s new strategy for the coming years. The Trustees have overall approval and oversight of the organisation’s strategy, plans and budgets and are regularly kept updated on progress against these and a series of agreed targets and key performance indicators. A key priority for the Board is ensuring that the Charity returns to a break-even financial outturn, whilst recognising that investment is required to deliver change to implement our new strategy.

Indemnity insurance up to the value of £5 million is provided for the Directors and Trustees. The premiums are paid centrally for the whole group by Age UK and the total indemnity insurance paid by Age UK in relation to Directors and Trustees for the whole group for April 2023 to March 2024 was £17,812.50 (April 2022 – March 2023: £14,888).

Charity Governance Code

Age UK supports the principles of the Charity Governance Code fully and we have commenced a review of our practice against the Code’s requirements as part of an approach of continuously improving our governance arrangements, as the Code envisaged.

We undertook an internal Board effectiveness review in 2023/2024 to inform the Board’s continued development and are now implementing a number of steps that we identified as a result.

The review of our corporate and group structure undertaken in late 2021/2022 has formed the basis of our subsequent corporate simplification work which has continued in 2023/2024, with changes made to the location of many of Age UK Trading CIC’s activities.

Board Committees

The revised committee structure that was introduced in 2022/2023 has been developed further in 2023/2024, seeing an increase in both the number of committees and in their authority to make decisions on clearly delineated matters. All Committees are accountable to, and report to the Board.

Terms of Reference for the existing committees were reviewed and updated in 2023/2024 to ensure they remained fit for purpose and two new committees were created: Trading Committee, which held its first meeting in November 2023, and Technology, Digital and Cyber Committee (a sub-committee of the Age UK FRAC), which held its first meeting in February 2024.

All Committees contributed significantly to the development of Age UK’s new strategy during 2023/2024 as well as, extending into 2024/2025, the creation of a new set of strategic KPIs which will be used to monitor the success of that strategy moving forward.

The membership, role and particular areas of focus for each committee during the year are outlined below.

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Committees in place at 31 March 2024

Charitable Activities Oversight Committee

The Committee was tasked with:

Its membership was a mix of Trustees and non-Trustees. As at 31 March 2024, its membership was Martin Jones (Chair), Carol Cole, Dawn McNally, Gary Rycroft and Denise Smith.

During the year it has particularly focused on:

Finance, Risk and Audit Committee (FRAC)

The Committee was responsible for the following areas, supported by the Investment subcommittee and the Technology, Digital and Cyber sub-committee which first met in February 2024:

And via the Investment sub-committee :

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And via the Technology, Digital and Cyber sub-committee (which first met in February 2024):

As at 31 March 2024, membership of FRAC included Jackie Freeman (Chair), Preeti Sadarangani, Roy Shubhabrata, Toby Strauss, Jill Robinson and Shona Spence; membership of the Investment sub-committee included Jackie Freeman (Chair), Malcolm Smith and Praveen Telang; and membership of the Technology, Digital and Cyber subcommittee included Roy Shubhabrata (Chair), Daniel Jacobs and Craig York.

Fundraising, Marketing & Brand Committee

The Committee was responsible for:

Its membership was exclusively Trustees. As at 31 March 2024, its membership was Lynda Thomas (Chair), Nick Burstin, Jackie Freeman.

During the year, it has particularly focused on:

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Nominations and Governance Committee

The Committee was responsible for:

Its membership is entirely made up of the Trustees who chair each of the Board’s Committees. As at 31 March 2024, its membership was Toby Strauss (Chair), Carol Cole, Mike Dixon, Jackie Freeman, Martin Jones and Lynda Thomas.

During the year, the committee particularly focused on:

People Committee

The Committee is responsible for:

Its membership was exclusively Trustees. As at 31 March 2024, its membership was Carol Cole (Chair), Sharon Allen and Julia Scott.

During the year, it has particularly focused on:

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Trading Committee

This Committee is very recently established (it first met in November 2023) and is tasked with:

Its membership was a mix of Trustees and non-Trustees. As at 31 March 2024, its membership was Mike Dixon (Chair), Alison Crossley, Helen Milford, Jill Robinson and Toby Strauss.

Age UK subsidiaries

The Age UK Group comprises Age UK, Age International and a number of other subsidiaries. Age UK’s principal subsidiaries in 2023/2024 were:

Age International

Age International is the trading name of HelpAge International UK, a charitable company limited by guarantee and registered in England and Wales (registered charity number 1128267-8 and registered company number 7897113). It is the UK affiliate of the HelpAge International global network of organisations focused on ageing which has over 170 members in 93 countries. Age International inspires and channels UK support so that older people in humanitarian crises and in some of the world's poorest places can lead happier, healthier lives and be treated with dignity.

Age International is currently governed by a Board of seven Trustees, each of whom is eligible to serve up to three terms of three years. In 2023/24, the Chair of Age International was Ann Keeling and the CEO was Alison Marshall. More information can be found in Age International’s Trustees Annual Report and Accounts 2023/24.

Age UK Trading CIC

Age UK Trading CIC is a Community Interest Company limited by shares (registered company number 1102972). In accordance with the company’s Articles of Association, any surplus generated may be returned to Age UK, the sole member of the company, for the benefit of the community, in particular activities that further the charity’s objectives.

Until 1 November 2023, it operated our network of charity shops and carried out other retail activity - dealing in the sale of donated goods on behalf of Age UK and selling second-hand goods on behalf of the general public as an agent and generating income itself from the sale of new goods. From 1 November 2023, most of these activities were transferred to Age UK.

Until 1 November 2023, its Board was a mix of non-executive directors who were Trustees,

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non-executive directors who were not Trustees and executive directors: Mike Dixon (Chair), Daniel Jacobs, Helen Milford, Tracey Bright and Vicki Thornton. From 1 November 2023, its Board was Tracey Bright and Vicki Thornton.

AgeCo Limited

AgeCo Limited is a registered company limited by shares (registered company number 3156159). It provides insurance services and other products designed for people in later life.

‑ Its membership was a mix of non executive directors who are Trustees, non- executive directors who are not Trustees and executive directors. As at 31 March 2024, this included Toby Strauss (Chair), Alison Crossley, Jill Robinson and Anthony Jones.

The AgeCo Risk and Audit Committee exists to ensure that its Board has the assurance it needs in relation to the company’s risk management, compliance, and internal controls. As at 31 March 2024, membership of this committee was Jill Robinson (Chair) and Alison Crossley.

Age Cymru

Age Cymru (registered charity number 1128436 and registered company number 6837284) became a subsidiary charity with effect from 1 October 2017 with Age UK becoming its sole member. During the course of 2022/2023, the Age Cymru trustees and Age UK decided to transition the organisation back to being an independent charity. This work was completed on 1 April 2023 and Age Cymru is no longer a member of the Age UK Group.

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Trustees’ duty to promote the success of the Charity: Section 172 statement

Trustees have a duty to promote the success of the charity – achieving the charity’s purposes while ensuring the charity’s continued viability. In fulfilling this duty, the Trustees are required by section 172(1) of the Companies Act 2006 to have regard to specific factors, including:

The Board has delegated day-to-day management and decision-making, within the framework of our long-term strategy, to the CEO and the executive team. It also has a welldeveloped committee structure to ensure Trustees continue to have good oversight of the management and decision-making within the organisation. This creates capacity for the Board to focus on the development and delivery of an ambitious strategy that prepares the organisation for future growth and enables it to meet the changing landscape facing its beneficiaries, partners and other stakeholders.

The activities and decision-making of both the executive and the Board’s committees are, therefore, an integral part of the way in which the Trustees carry out their duty. As such, many of the key illustrations of how we comply with this duty are contained elsewhere in this report:

Additional examples of the way the factors listed in section 172 informed the discharge of the overall duty include:

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Environment and Sustainability

In addition to being compliant with government guidance, Age UK is actively working to reduce its impact on the environment.

Examples of how we are reducing our environmental impact include:

Highlight

Energy efficiency

Recycling and sustainable shopping

Water, travel and other

Looking ahead

In the year ahead we have exciting plans, particularly across Age UK charity shops. For example, we will reduce the carbon footprint of our charity shops significantly and create the first of many carbon-neutral Age UK charity shops by 2025.

In line with ESOS regulations, and as a result of energy audits already carried out in our shops, and offices, a plan is being developed to identify energy conservation measures, and the following measures will be implemented during the next financial year:

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We will continue to:

Age UK is reporting energy and carbon emissions in compliance with The Companies House (Directors’ Report) and Limited Liability Partnerships (Energy and Carbon Report) Regulations 2018. Our Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR) report is below.

Overview of carbon emissions

This is the fifth year of reporting under SECR. Compared to the previous year, current emissions have increased by 69 tonnes of CO2e, mainly due to an increase in companyowned transport and business travel (emissions for business travel almost doubled). Additionally, while electricity consumption was 5 per cent lower, emissions related to electricity consumption increased by 10 tonnes, mainly due to the increase in the carbon emission factor for grid electricity. Nevertheless, current emissions are 763 tonnes of CO2e lower (37 per cent) than the base year (April 2019 to March 2020). The main factor causing this decrease in emissions is the reduction in both electricity and gas consumption which is likely to be a result of shop closures during the reporting period.

Business Travel

Activities relating to travel include company cars, employee-owned vehicles for business use, flights, trains and hotel stays.

Quantification and Reporting Methodology

HM Government Environmental Reporting Guidelines: including streamlined energy and carbon reporting guidance (March 2019) has been used for the collation of data sources and reporting of emissions. UK Government GHG Conversion Factors for Company Reporting has been used for the reporting of emissions, using the 2023 version.

Organisational Boundary

The financial boundary of the business has been used to determine the reporting boundary.

Operational Scope

Measurements include mandatory scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions. Estimates have been made with the collation of data. Additionally, optional emissions from electricity transmission and distribution losses, and business travel (flights, trains and hotel stays) have been included in the report.

Exclusions and Report Changes

There are no data exclusions in this reporting period. Transmission and distribution losses have been included and retrospectively calculated for previous years. Additionally, emissions related to hotel stays have been retrospectively adjusted for the financial period 2022/23, as international hotels were not included.

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Base Year

The base year is April 2019 to March 2020 and the gross reported emissions during that period were 2,089 tonnes of CO2e.

Intensity Measurement

The reporting metric chosen is gross scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions in tonnes of CO2e per ft2 of retail floor, as this best reflects business activity. The intensity measurement will be reported each year, with a comparison made against the previous year’s performance.

The emissions for the current period show a significant reduction (37 per cent) against the base year.

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SCOPE 1 CO2e (tonnes) Estimated
(%)		 Specific
exclusions
(%)		 2019 - 2020 2020 - 2021 2021 - 2022 2022 - 2023 2023 - 2024
Natural Gas 0 None 157 98 89 81 78
Company-owned transport 0 None 525 N/A 398 358 374
**Total Scope 1 CO2e ** 682 98 487 439 452
SCOPE 2 CO2e (tonnes) Estimated
(%)		 Exclusions 2019 - 2020 2020 - 2021 2021 - 2022 2022 - 2023 2023 - 2024
Electricity 0 None 1,297 500 745 640 651
**Total Scope 2 CO2e ** 1,297 500 745 640 651
SCOPE 3 CO2e (tonnes) Estimated
(%)		 Exclusions 2019 - 2020 2020 - 2021 2021 - 2022 2022 - 2023 2023 - 2024
Private transport for
business purposes		 0 None N/A N/A 32 52 43
Flight 0 None N/A N/A 1 47 88
Hotel Stays 0 None N/A N/A 7 11 16
Trains 0 None N/A N/A 3 11 22
ElectricityT & D Losses 0 None 110 47 66 59 56
**Total Scope 3 CO2e ** 110 47 110 179 225
TOTAL CO2e Scope 1, 2, 3 Gross emissions(tonnes) 2,089 645 1,341 1,258 1,327
IntensityMetric Measure(ft2of floor area) 721,060 715,948 624,826 514,042 472,636
Intensity Metric (Gross emissions) tCO2e/ ft2 of floor
area		 0.00290 0.00090 0.00215 0.00245 0.00281
EnergyConsumption Exclusions 2019 - 2020 2020 - 2021 2021 - 2022 2022 - 2023 2023 - 2024
kWh As above 5,928,415 2,889,424 5,803,041 5,450,332 5,303,285
Carbon offsets 0 0 0 0 0
TOTAL CO2e Scope 1, 2, 3 Net emissions(tonnes) 2,089 645 1,341 1,258 1,327
Intensity Metric (Net emissions) tCO2e/ ft2 of floor
area		 0.00290 0.00090 0.00215 0.00245 0.00281

54

Strategic report

Further information

Partnership arrangements

Age UK, local Age UK partners in England and Friends of local Age UK partners in England are all members of the Age England Association, a body that supports the Age UK network to work together effectively. Age UK has regular meetings with the Age England Association’s Executive Committee.

Age UK also works closely with Age Cymru, Age NI and Age Scotland to co-ordinate work at a national level in the UK.

Age UK grant-making policy

Through its grant-giving, Age UK supports local Age UK partners in delivering key services and developing them as sustainable organisations. It also supports other local, national, and international organisations to further Age UK’s strategic objectives to improve the lives of older people. Age UK’s grant programme is funded by corporate partnerships, external trusts and foundations and from its own income.

Each application received for grant aid is rigorously assessed. All grant recipients are required to submit progress reports (normally quarterly or as defined by the specific programme). Most grants are for more than 12 months and regular reviews are undertaken.

55

Strategic report

Statement of Trustees’ responsibilities

The Trustees (who are also Directors of Age UK for the purposes of company law) are responsible for preparing the Trustees’ Annual Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice (United Kingdom Accounting Standards).

Company law requires the Trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year. Under company law, the Trustees must not approve the financial statements unless they are satisfied that they give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charitable company and the group, of the incoming resources and application of resources, including the income and expenditure, of the charitable group for that period. In preparing these financial statements, the Trustees are required to:

Select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;

The Trustees are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that are sufficient to show and explain the charitable company’s transactions, disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charitable company, and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006 and the provisions of the charity’s constitution. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and the group and, hence, for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

The Report of the Trustees, which incorporates the requirements of the Strategic report and the Directors’ report as set out in the Companies Act 2006 (Strategic Report and Directors’ Report) Regulations 2013, was approved by the Board in their capacity as Trustees and company Directors on 26[th] September 2024 and signed on its behalf by:

Toby Strauss Chair, Age UK Date: 2 October 2024

56

Strategic report

Trustees, Executive Directors and professional advisors

Trustees and Other Age UK 2023/2024 Committee Members

Trustees CAOC FMBC People Nom & Gov
Trading		 FRAC Investment
(FRAC sub-
committee)		 TDCC
(FRAC sub-
committee)
Sharon Allen ●
Nick Burstin ●
Carol Cole ● ● ●
Mike Dixon ● ● ●
Jackie Freeman ● ● ● ●
Martin Jones ● ●
Ann Keeling
Dawn McNally ●
Preeti Sadarangani ●
Julia Scott ●
Roy Shubhabrata ● ● ●
Toby Strauss ● ● ●
Lynda Thomas ● ●

57

Strategic report

Other Age UK Committee Members CAOC FMBC People Nom & Gov
Trading		 FRAC Investment
(FRAC sub-
committee)		 TDCC
(FRAC sub-
committee)
Alison Crossley ●
Daniel Jacobs ●
Helen Milford ●
Jill Robinson ● ●
Gary Rycroft ●
Denise Smith ●
Malcolm Smith ●
Shona Spence ●
Praveen Telang ●
Craig York ●

The above charts indicate who was a member of a particular committee or sub-committee (abbreviations are defined earlier in the report) at any point during the 2023/24 year.

58

Strategic report

Royal Patrons

His Majesty The King is Patron of Age UK.

Her Majesty The Queen is Patron of The Silver Line, part of Age UK.

Executive Directors

Professional advisors

Bankers National Westminster Bank plc 250 Bishopsgate London EC2M 4AA

Internal Auditor KPMG LLP 15 Canada Square London E14 5GL

External Auditor Crowe U.K. LLP 55 Ludgate Hill London EC4M 7JW

Solicitors Farrer & Co LLP 66 Lincoln’s Inn Fields London WC2A 3LH

Investment managers Sarasin & Partners LLP Juxton House 100 St Paul’s Churchyard London EC4M 8BU

Goldman Sachs International Plumtree Court 25 Shoe Lane London EC4A 4AU

59

Strategic report

Age UK registered office

7[th] Floor, One America Square 17 Crosswall London EC3N 2LB

60

Independent Auditor’s Report to the Members of Age UK

Opinion

We have audited the financial statements of Age UK (‘the charitable company’) and its subsidiaries (‘the group’) for the year ended 31 March 2024 which comprise the Consolidated Statement of Financial Activities, the Consolidated and Charity Balance Sheets, the Consolidated Cash Flow Statement and notes to the financial statements, including significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

In our opinion the financial statements:

Basis for opinion

We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the group in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the FRC’s Ethical Standard, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.

Conclusions relating to going concern

In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the trustees’ use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.

Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the charitable company’s or the group’s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least 12 months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.

Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the trustees with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.

Other information

The trustees are responsible for the other information contained within the annual report. The other information comprises the information included in the annual report, other than the

61

financial statements and our auditor’s report thereon. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our report, we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon.

Our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the audit or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether this gives rise to a material misstatement in the financial statements themselves. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact.

We have nothing to report in this regard.

Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006

In our opinion based on the work undertaken in the course of our audit:

Matters on which we are required to report by exception

In light of the knowledge and understanding of the group and charitable company and their environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the strategic report or the directors’ report included within the trustees’ report. We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Companies Act 2006 requires us to report to you if, in our opinion:

Responsibilities of trustees

As explained more fully in the trustees’ responsibilities statement set out on page 105, the trustees (who are also the directors of the charitable company for the purposes of company law) are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the trustees determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.

In preparing the financial statements, the trustees are responsible for assessing the charitable company’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the trustees either intend to liquidate the charitable company or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.

62

Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements

Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor’s report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.

Details of the extent to which the audit was considered capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud and non-compliance with laws and regulations are set out below.

A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is located on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at: www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor’s report.

Extent to which the audit was considered capable of detecting irregularities including fraud.

Irregularities, including fraud are instances of noncompliance with laws and regulations. We identified and assessed the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements from irregularities, whether due to fraud or error, and discussed these between our audit team members.

We then designed and performed audit procedures responsive to those risks, including obtaining audit evidence sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.

We obtained an understanding of the legal and regulatory frameworks within which the charitable company and group operates, focusing on those laws and regulations that have a direct effect on the determination of material amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. The laws and regulations we considered in this context were the Companies Act 2006, the Charities Act 2011 together with the Charities SORP (FRS 102). We assessed the required compliance with these laws and regulations as part of our audit procedures on the related financial statement items.

In addition, we considered provisions of other laws and regulations that do not have a direct effect on the financial statements but compliance with which might be fundamental to the charitable company’s and the group’s ability to operate or to avoid a material penalty. We also considered the opportunities and incentives that may exist within the charitable company and the group for fraud. The laws and regulations we considered in this context for the UK operations were General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Taxation legislation, Employment legislation, Gambling commission regulations and FCA regulations. For international operations we have considered Antifraud, bribery and corruption legislation.

Auditing standards limit the required audit procedures to identify non-compliance with these laws and regulations to enquiry of the Trustees and other management and inspection of regulatory and legal correspondence, if any.

We identified the greatest risk of material impact on the financial statements from irregularities, including fraud, to be within the timing of recognition of income and the override of controls by management.

63

Our audit procedures to respond to these risks included enquiries of management, internal audit, and the Finance, Risk and Audit Committee about their own identification and assessment of the risks of irregularities, sample testing on the posting of journals, reviewing accounting estimates for biases, reviewing regulatory correspondence with the Charity Commission, reviewing RMAR reports prepared for the FCA and reading minutes of meetings of those charged with governance.

Owing to the inherent limitations of an audit, there is an unavoidable risk that we may not have detected some material misstatements in the financial statements, even though we have properly planned and performed our audit in accordance with auditing standards. For example, the further removed non-compliance with laws and regulations (irregularities) is from the events and transactions reflected in the financial statements, the less likely the inherently limited procedures required by auditing standards would identify it. In addition, as with any audit, there remained a higher risk of non-detection of irregularities, as these may involve collusion, forgery, intentional omissions, misrepresentations, or the override of internal controls. We are not responsible for preventing non-compliance and cannot be expected to detect non-compliance with all laws and regulations.

Use of our report

This report is made solely to the charitable company’s members, as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charitable company’s members those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor’s report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charitable company and the charitable company’s members as a body and the charitable company’s trustees as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.

Nicola May, Senior Statutory Auditor for and on behalf of Crowe U.K. LLP Statutory Auditor London Date: 3 October 2024

64

Age UK 06825798

Charity Statement of Financial Activities, incorporating income and expenditure accounts, for the year ended 31st March 2024

INCOME AND EXPENDITURE
Note
INCOME FROM:
Voluntary income
Donations and gifts
Legacies
Grants, corporate and trusts
Lotteries and raffles
Total voluntary income
Trading activities
Charity Shops
Commission Income
Other trading income
Total income from trading activities
Investment income and interest
Charitable activities
Campaigning and research
Information and advice
Health & care
Wellbeing
Supporting the network
Total income from charitable activities
Other income
Net (loss)on disposal of fixed assets
TOTAL INCOME
EXPENDITURE ON:
Cost of raising funds
Cost of generating voluntary income
3a
Cost of generating trading income
3b
Cost of Charity Shops
Cost of generating Commission Income
Total cost of generating trading income
3b
Cost of generating investment income
3c
Total cost of raising funds		 Unrestricted
£'000
8,937
26,687
235
11,638
47,497
39,486
9,460
64
49,010
1,004
-
84
-
300
2,999
3,383
(1)
100,893
(22,123)
(33,507)
(6,671)
(40,178)
(244)
(62,545)		 Restricted and
endowed
£'000
1,806
877
17,943
-
20,626
-
-
58
58
77
-
-
-
44
-
44
-
20,805
(376)
-
-
-
-
(376)		 2024
£'000
10,743
27,564
18,178
11,638
68,123
39,486
9,460
122
49,068
1,081
-
84
-
344
2,999
3,427
(1)
121,698
(22,499)
(33,507)
(6,671)
(40,178)
(244)
(62,921)		 2023
£'000
10,888
25,883
25,912
11,013
73,696
37,318
8,434
311
46,063
970
-
31
-
300
2,176
2,507
(11)
123,225
(20,600)
(31,115)
(6,405)
(37,520)
(263)
(58,383)
Net resources available for charitable activities
2		 38,348 20,429 58,777 64,842
Charitable activities
Campaigning and research
Information and advice
Health & care
Wellbeing
Supporting the network
International
Total expenditure on charitable activities
3d
TOTAL EXPENDITURE
3
Tax payable
Interest payable
Net gains/(losses) on investments
9
NET INCOME/(EXPENDITURE)
Other recognised gains and losses
Actuarial losses on pension scheme
18
Loss on disposal of subsidiary
28a
Revaluation gains
9
Transfers between funds
16
NET MOVEMENT IN FUNDS
Reconciliation of funds
16
Total funds bought forward
Net movement in funds
Total funds carried forward		 (7,119)
(7,747)
(1,677)
(8,948)
(11,953)
(5,090)
(42,534)
(105,079)
-
(230)
2,462
(1,954)
(2,948)
(1,613)
17
1,610
(4,888)
56,146
(4,888)
51,258		 (3,975)
(1,425)
(986)
(3,020)
(1,031)
(12,182)
(22,619)
(22,995)
-
-
192
(1,998)
-
(1)
-
(1,610)
(3,609)
9,500
(3,609)
5,891		 (11,094)
(9,172)
(2,663)
(11,968)
(12,984)
(17,272)
(65,153)
(128,074)
-
(230)
2,654
(3,952)
(2,948)
(1,614)
17
-
(8,497)
65,646
(8,497)
57,149		 (11,956)
(8,660)
(3,156)
(14,044)
(12,661)
(21,656)
(72,133)
(130,516)
(1)
-
(3,815)
(11,107)
(3,373)
-
138
-
-
(14,342)
79,988
(14,342)
65,646

For full 2023 SOFA please refer to Note 19.

65

Age UK 06825798 Consolidated Balance Sheet

For the Year Ended 31 March 2024

Note
Fixed assets :
Tangible assets
8
Investments
9
Total fixed assets
Current assets
Stock
10
Debtors
11
Cash at bank and in hand
Total current assets
Liabilities
Creditors: Amounts falling due within one year
12
Net current assets / (liabilities)
Creditors: Amounts falling due after one year
13
Provisions for liabilities and charges
14
Net assets excluding pension liability
Defined benefit pension scheme liability
18
Net assets
Funds
Endowment funds
Restricted funds
Total endowed and restricted funds
16
Investment property reserve
Other fixed assets
Fixed asset funds
General reserve - excluding pension liability
Pension reserve
18
General reserve
16
Total unrestricted funds
16
Total funds		 Group
2024
£'000
7,970
46,959
54,929
742
25,719
3,299
29,760
(19,524)
10,236
(605)
(7,405)
57,155
(6)
57,149
3,428
2,463
5,891
10,094
5,039
15,133
36,131
(6)
36,125
51,258
57,149		 Group
2023
£'000
6,917
54,644
61,561
415
21,976
8,847
31,238
(18,778)
12,460
(800)
(7,562)
65,659
(13)
65,646
3,161
6,339
9,500
11,380
3,783
15,163
40,996
(13)
40,983
56,146
65,646		 Charity
2024
£'000
7,970
50,459
58,429
-
23,249
2,592
25,841
(25,559)
282
(605)
(7,044)
51,062
(6)
51,056
3,428
2,635
6,063
10,094
5,039
15,133
29,866
(6)
29,860
44,993
51,056		 Charity
2023
£'000
6,916
58,144
65,060
-
19,946
3,866
23,812
(23,092)
720
(800)
(6,700)
58,280
(13)
58,267
3,161
4,797
7,958
11,380
3,781
15,161
35,161
(13)
35,148
50,309
58,267

Age UK the charity's own deficit for the year included in these group results was (£7,210,556) [ 2023: (£8,077,777) ]

The accompanying notes on pages 68 to 98 form part of these financial statements.

The financial statements on pages 65 to 98 were approved and authorised for issue by the Board of Trustees on 26 September 2024 and signed on their behalf on 2 October 2024 by:

Toby Strauss - Chair

66

Age UK 06825798 Consolidated cash flow statement

For the Year Ended 31 March 2024

Cash flows from operating activities
Net income for the year
Adjustments for:
Taxation charge
Investment income and interest income
Interest expense
Depreciation and amortisation of fixed assets
Loss on sale of fixed assets
Net (gain)/loss on investments
Loss on disposal of subsidiary
Acturial loss on defined pension scheme
Income taxes paid
Incease in stocks
(Increase)/Decrease in debtors
(Decrease)/ Increase in creditors
Decrease in provisions
Difference between pension charge and cash contribution
Net cash from operating activities
A		 Group
2024
£'000
(8,497)
-
(1,081)
230
1,023
1
(2,671)
1,614
2,948
-
2,064
(327)
(3,593)
(4,446)
(157)
(2,956)
(11,479)
(17,912)		 Group
2023
£'000
(14,342)
1
(970)
31
1,117
15
3,677
-
3,373
(1)
7,243
(148)
579
2,524
(2,545)
(4,573)
(4,163)
(11,262)
Cash flows from investing activities
Capital expenditure and financial investment :
Purchase of tangible fixed assets
Proceeds from sale of investment properties
Cash forgone on disposal of subsidiary
Net assets forgone on disposal of subsidary
Cash purchase of investments
Dividends received
Cash withdrawals from investments
Interest received in bank
Net cash inflow for capital expenditure and financial investment
Net cash from investing activities
B		 2024
£'000
(2,263)
1,488
(1,392)
(222)
(968)
1,073
10,021
7
7,744
7,744		 2023
£'000
(1,539)
791
-
-
(840)
964
4,619
6
4,001
4,001
Cash flows from financing activities
Returns on investment and servicing of finance :
Repayments of borrowings
Interest paid
Repayments of finance leases
Receipt of RCF Loans
Repayment of RCF Loans
Loan to third party
Net cash from financing activities
C		 2024
£'000
-
(230)
-
17,400
(12,400)
(150)
4,620		 2023
£'000
(485)
(31)
(116)
1,000
-
-
368
Reconciliation of net cash flow to movement in net funds :
2024
£'000
Net decrease in cash in the period
A + B + C
(5,548)
Cash and cash equivalents at 1 April 2023
8,847
Cash and cash equivalents at 31 March 2024
3,299		 2023
£'000
(6,893)
15,740
8,847

The accompanying notes on pages 68 to 98 form part of these financial statements.

67

e Age UK 06825798 Notes to the financial statements

For the Year Ended 31 March 2024

1 a) Accounting policies The Charity is a company limited by guarantee, incorporated in England and Wales on 20 February 2009 and registered as a charity on 25 February 2009. The members of the company are the trustees, who are also ordinary members and named on page 57-58. In the event of the Charity being wound up, the liability in respect of the guarantee is limited to £1 per member of the Charity. The principal accounting policies are summarised below. Basis of preparation

These Group and parent company financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP), Financial Reporting Standard 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS102), together with the reporting requirements of the Companies Act 2006 and the Charities Act 2011. The presentation currency of these financial statements is sterling. The parent company is included in the consolidated financial statements, and is considered to be a qualifying entity under FRS 102 paragraphs 1.8 to 1.12. The following exemptions available under FRS 102 in respect of certain disclosures for the parent company financial statements have been applied: - No separate parent company Cash Flow Statement with related notes is included. The accounting policies set out below have, unless otherwise stated, been applied consistently to all periods presented in these financial statements. The financial statements are prepared on the historical cost basis with the exception of investments and investment properties which are stated at fair value. Judgements made by the directors, in the application of these accounting policies that have significant effect on the financial statements and estimates with a significant risk of material adjustment in the next year are discussed in note 1 (b). The Charity presents its charitable activities under six headings which reflect how the different functions within the Charity work together to help more older people love later life.

Going concern

Age UK continues to prepare its financial statements on the basis that it is a going concern.

In doing so, it has considered the current cost of living crisis, the high inflation levels and the other business risks it faces and has put in place a number of actions to manage these. Whilst the deficit in the current year was a planned deficit within our reserves target, we are cognisant that we need to return to a break-even budget. We do expect a further deficit in the 2024/25 year as we continue to invest in our strategic development, utilising our available free reserves, however, we are looking deeply at our ways of working so we are as effective and efficient as possible. This includes reviewing our income generation strategy to ensure that we are investing our money in the areas which will generate the best return on investment and reviewing our operating model to ensure we are structured in the best way to enable us to deliver our ambitious new strategy. A robust three-year planning process has been carried out which looked at projected cash flows and reserves requirements over that period. The Trustees believe that Age UK is well placed to manage its financing and other operational risks satisfactorily and have a reasonable expectation that Age UK will have adequate resources to continue in operation for the foreseeable future and meet its liabilities as they fall due, until at least March 2026. They, therefore, consider it appropriate to adopt the going concern basis of accounting in preparing the financial statements.

Basis of consolidation

The consolidated accounts of the Group incorporate the accounts of the Charity and its subsidiary undertakings.

The Trustees have taken the exemption conferred by S408(3) Companies Act 2006, accordingly the accounts present a consolidated Statement of Financial Activities (SOFA) only.

Income

All income is derived from services and activities carried out in the UK.

All income is included in the SOFA when the Charity is legally entitled to the income, when receipt of the income is probable and the amount can be quantified with reasonable accuracy. The following specific policies apply to categories of income:

Donations and all other receipts generated from fundraising are reported on a receivable basis. Lotteries and raffles income is recorded on the date of the draw.

Legacies are accounted for as income once the receipt of the legacy becomes probable and quantifiable and entitlement criteria are established. For pecuniary legacies this will generally be at the point probate is granted. For residuary legacies this will generally be when a copy of the will and an Assets and Liabilities Statement has been received from the executor and is subject to a provision of 10% to allow for the uncertainty of the final income value.

Grants receivable income (including government grants), where related to performance and specific deliverables, is accounted for as the Charity earns the right to consideration by its performance. Where income is received in advance of performance, its recognition is deferred and included in creditors. Where entitlement occurs before income is received, the income is accrued.

68

Age UK 06825798 Notes to the financial statements

For the Year Ended 31 March 2024

Income (continued)

Gifts In Kind, where donated for distribution, are included at the value to the Charity and recognised as income when they are distributed to the projects. Gifts donated for resale are included as income when they are sold at the price realised.

Where donated services and facilities are provided, these are included at the value to the Charity where this can be quantified. An equivalent amount is recognised in costs. The value placed on them is the value to the Charity (i.e. the price the Charity would have paid on the open market). No amounts are included in the financial statements for services donated by volunteers.

Investment income is accounted for when receivable and includes the related tax recoverable.

Trading income is accounted for on a receivable basis. Income from insurance activities is accounted for when the insurance policy is sold or renewed. The upfront payment arising from the sale of emergency alarm products has been accounted on an invoiced basis.

Resources expended

All expenditure is accounted for on an accruals basis and has been classified under headings that aggregate all costs related to that category. Where costs cannot be directly attributed to particular headings they have been allocated to activities on a basis consistent with the use of resources.

Grants payable are charged in the year when the offer is conveyed to the recipient, except in cases where the offer is conditional, such grants being recognised as expenditure when the conditions are fulfilled.

Fundraising costs are those incurred in seeking voluntary donations and do not include the costs of disseminating information in support of charitable objectives.

Governance costs are the costs associated with the running of the Charity, as opposed to the direct management functions inherent in generating funds, service delivery and programme or project work. These include such items as internal and external audit, legal advice for Trustees and costs associated with constitutional and statutory requirements.

In 2023/24, the method of analysing costs between direct costs and support costs has been reviewed. This follows from work done to improve visibility of the cost of activities across divisions. Where costs are specifically attributable to either raising funds or charitable activity these have been determined to be direct costs, irrelevant of the department in which these are incurred. Support costs have been determined to be solely the organisational overheads and include governance costs, payroll administration, procurement oversight, central finance, IT servers, central IT infrastructure, facilities and central HR services. The revision in the method of allocating costs has resulted in a reduction of those costs previously classed as support costs. Prior year support costs have been re-stated under the new methodology, with support costs reducing from £13.4m to £8.9m.

Where information about the aims, objectives and projects of the Charity is provided in the content of fundraising material, those costs are apportioned to charitable expenditure.

A percentage of the cost of selling donated goods has been allocated to charitable activities. The percentage allocation is based on the number of hours per week spent by full-time equivalent staff in promoting the Charity's activities. Irrecoverable VAT is charged as a cost to the SOFA.

Tangible fixed assets

Tangible fixed assets are stated at deemed cost less accumulated depreciation and accumulated impairment losses. Tangible fixed assets costing more than £5,000 are capitalised and included at cost including any incidental expenses of acquisition.

Depreciation and any impairment is provided on all tangible fixed assets at rates calculated to write off the cost on a straight-line basis over their expected useful economic lives as follows:

Gifted housing over 50years
Short-leaseholdproperties over aperiod rangingfrom 5 to 10years
Fixtures and fittings over aperiod rangingfrom 3 to 10years
Motor vehicles over 4years
Computer equipment over 3years

Gifted housing scheme

Gifted houses are accounted for as income when donated at market value, which is then the value used as base cost in fixed assets. A qualified surveyor carries out the valuations. When an individual donates a house to the Charity, the Charity is committed to caring for that individual and maintaining their property. An actuarial valuation of the total cost of care for individuals who have gifted their house is made and the sum is included within provisions for liabilities and charges. Costs of care are charged to the provision as incurred (note 14). Any properties donated without ongoing care or maintenance commitments are not part of the scheme. Properties no longer qualifying as gifted housing become investment properties at that date. This occurs at the point at which the property becomes vacant and is available for sale. The provision for the cost of care meets the definition of an insurance contract as defined by FRS103. As permitted Age UK continues with its existing policy under FRS102 for measuring this liability. Further detail is provided in note 14.

69

Age UK 06825798 Notes to the financial statements

For the Year Ended 31 March 2024

1 a) Accounting policies (continued)

Investments

Listed investments are stated at market value at the balance sheet date. The SOFA includes the net gains and losses arising on revaluations and disposals throughout the year. Investments in subsidiaries are held at cost less provision for impairment if any. It is the Charity's policy to keep valuations up to date such that when investments are sold there is no realised gain or loss arising. As a result the SOFA does not distinguish between the valuation adjustments relating to sales and those relating to continued holdings, as they are both treated as changes in the investment portfolio throughout the year.

Movements in value arising from investment changes or revaluation and the profit on disposal of investments have been charged or credited to the funds to which they relate. Investment properties are stated at market value at the balance sheet date. The SOFA includes the net gains and losses arising on revaluations in the year. The properties in the portfolio are revalued by a professional valuer who is qualified for the purposes required, based on market knowledge, at least every three years. Losses arising on revaluation of any property are recognised in other comprehensive income to the extent of any previously recognised revaluation increase accumulated in equity, in respect of that asset. Any gains arising on revaluation are recognised in other comprehensive income only where the group has discretion over the timing of the asset’s disposal, thereby excluding gifted housing properties.

Leases Leases in which the entity assumes substantially all the risks and rewards of ownership of the leased asset are classified as finance leases. All other leases are classified as operating leases and are charged to the SOFA on a straight-line basis. Leased assets acquired by way of finance lease are stated on initial recognition at an amount equal to the lower of their fair value and the present value of the minimum lease payments at inception of the lease, including any incremental costs directly attributable to negotiating and arranging the lease.

Stock Stock is stated at the lower of cost and estimated selling price less costs to complete and sell. Cost is based on the first-in first-out principle and includes expenditure incurred in acquiring the stock.

Items donated for resale or distribution are not included in the financial statements until they are sold or distributed.

Basic financial instruments

Trade and other debtors are recognised initially at transaction price less attributable transaction costs. Trade and other creditors are recognised initially at transaction price plus attributable transaction costs. Subsequent to initial recognition they are measured at amortised cost using the effective interest method, less any impairment losses in the case of trade debtors. If the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, for example if payment is deferred beyond normal business terms, then it is measured at the present value of future payments discounted at a market rate of instrument for a similar debt instrument. Cash and cash equivalents Cash is represented by cash in hand and deposits with financial institutions repayable without penalty on notice of not more than 24 hours. Cash equivalents are highly liquid investments that mature in no more than three months from the date of acquisition and that are readily convertible to known amounts of cash with insignificant risk of change in value.

Provisions A provision is recognised in the balance sheet when the Group has a present legal or constructive obligation as a result of a past event, that can be reliably measured and it is probable that an outflow of economic benefits will be required to settle the obligation. Provisions are recognised at the best estimate of the amount required to settle the obligation at the reporting date.

Pensions :

Defined contribution plans and other long term employee benefits

A defined contribution plan is a post-employment benefit plan under which the Charity pays fixed contributions into a separate entity and will have no legal or constructive obligation to pay further amounts. Obligations for contributions to defined contribution pension plans are recognised as an expense in the SOFA in the periods during which services are rendered by employees.

For defined contribution schemes the amount charged to the SOFA for pension costs and other post-retirement benefits is the contributions payable in the year. Differences between contributions payable in the year and contributions actually paid are shown as either accruals or prepayments in the balance sheet.

Defined benefit plans

A defined benefit plan is a post-employment benefit plan other than a defined contribution plan. The entity’s net obligation in respect of defined benefit plans (and other long term employee benefits) is calculated (separately for each plan) by estimating the amount of future benefit that employees have earned in return for their service in the current and prior periods; that benefit is discounted to determine its present value. The fair value of any plan assets is deducted. The entity determines the net interest expense (income) on the net defined benefit liability for the period by applying the discount rate as determined at the beginning of the annual period to the net defined benefit liability taking account of changes arising as a result of contributions and benefit payments.

The discount rate is the yield at the balance sheet date on AA credit rated bonds denominated in the currency of, and having maturity dates approximating to the terms of the entity’s obligations. A valuation is performed annually by a qualified actuary using the projected unit credit method. The entity recognises net defined benefit plan assets to the extent that it is able to recover the surplus either through reduced contributions in the future or through refunds from the plan.

Changes in the net defined benefit liability arising from employee service rendered during the period, net interest on net defined benefit liability, and the cost of plan introductions, benefit changes, curtailments and settlements during the period are recognised in profit or loss.

Remeasurement of the net defined benefit liability/asset is recognised in other comprehensive income in the period in which it occurs.

The Charity makes deficit recovery payments to two closed defined benefits schemes that merged into one sectionalised scheme in October 2012.

The Charity contributes to a group personal pension plan operated by Zurich which is available to all employees over the age of 18. The assets of the scheme are held separately from those of the Charity. The annual contribution payments are charged to the SOFA.

70

Age UK 06825798 Notes to the financial statements

For the Year Ended 31 March 2024

1 a) Accounting policies (continued) Funds:

Endowment funds

Investment income and gains/losses are allocated to the appropriate fund, all income from endowed funds currently held are unrestricted. Restricted funds

Restricted funds are funds subject to special conditions imposed by the donor, or with their authority (e.g. through a public appeal) or created through a legal process. The funds are not therefore available for work performed by Age UK other than that specified by the donor.

Unrestricted funds

Unrestricted funds are available for use at the discretion of the trustees in furtherance of the general objectives of the Charity and include:

Fixed asset funds:

These funds represent the book value of fixed assets, including investment properties, after allowing for the gifted housing scheme donor support provision. International funds:

This fund represents legacies attributable to donors with a history of making a donation to the Charity's international activities, but has been received without any restriction. The Charity intends to spend these funds on international activities in recognition that the funds have been received from a donor known to support the Charity's international activities.

Revaluation reserve:

This fund represents the change in value due to revaluation of property fixed assets.

General reserves:

This represents funds which are expendable at the discretion of the Trustees in the furtherance of the objects of the Charity. Pension reserve

In accordance with FRS102 - Retirement benefits, the liability attributable to the pension schemes as set out in note 18 is shown as a reduction of total funds. No designation of funds to meet future pension commitments at the balance sheet date is in place as the Charity anticipates that these commitments will be met through future cash flows and this is subject to regular review in conjunction with actuarial valuations and related professional advice.

Transfers between restricted funds or between restricted and unrestricted funds are made to maintain the committed value of such funds.

1 b) Critical accounting estimates and judgements:

In preparing the financial statements the trustees are required to make certain estimates and judgements which have an impact on the carrying value of assets and liabilities. These estimates and assumptions are reviewed on an on-going basis, and are based on historical experience and other factors considered relevant at the time the estimates and judgements are made. The key sources of estimation uncertainty are:

71

Age UK 06825798 Notes to the financial statements

For the Year Ended 31 March 2024

Net resources available for charitable activities
Donations and gifts
Legacies
Grants, corporates and trusts
Lotteries and raffles
Total fundraising
Income from charitable activities
Net (loss)/income from trading (i)
Net Investment income and interest
Net (loss)/gain on disposal of fixed assets
Net resources available for charitable activities
Total charitable expenditure*		 Income
£'000
10,743
27,564
18,178
11,638
68,123
3,427
8,890
837
(1)
81,276		 Expenditure
£'000
(6,309)
(4,976)
(3,187)
(8,027)
(22,499)
-
-
-
-
(22,499)		 2024
£'000
4,434
22,588
14,991
3,611
45,624
3,427
8,890
837
(1)
58,777
(65,153)		 Income
£'000
10,888
25,883
25,912
11,013
73,696
2,507
8,543
970
(11)
85,705		 Expenditure
£'000
(5,166)
(5,332)
(2,594)
(7,508)
(20,600)
-
-
-
-
(20,600)		 2023
£'000
5,722
20,551
23,318
3,505
53,096
2,507
8,543
970
(11)
65,105
(72,133)
% of income available for charitable activities
% of income spent on charitable activity
% of fundraisingincome available for charitable activities		 72%
111%
67%		 76%
111%
72%
(i) Trading analysis 49,068 (40,178) 8,890 46,063 (37,520) 8,543

3 Expenditure

Costs of generating funds :
(a) Costs of generating voluntary income
Donations and gifts
Legacies
Grants
Lotteries and raffles
(b) Costs of generating trading income :
Retail
Commission Income
(c) Cost of generating investment income :
(d) Charitable activities :
Campaigns & research
Information & advice
Health & Care
Wellbeing
Supporting the network
International
Total expenditure		 Direct costs of
activities
£'000
5,854
4,599
2,773
7,749
20,975
31,637
6,071
37,708
244
9,906
7,698
1,776
9,372
6,559
1,025
36,336
95,263		 Grant funding of
activities
£'000
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
30
476
430
1,366
5,110
15,639
23,051
23,051		 Allocation of
support costs
£'000
456
377
414
277
1,524
1,870
600
2,470
-
1,158
998
457
1,230
1,315
608
5,766
9,760		 2024
£'000
6,310
4,976
3,187
8,026
22,499
33,507
6,671
40,178
244
11,094
9,172
2,663
11,968
12,984
17,272
65,153
128,074		 2023
£'000
5,166
5,332
2,594
7,508
20,600
31,115
6,405
37,520
263
11,956
8,660
3,156
14,044
12,661
21,656
72,133
130,516

72

Age UK 06825798 Notes to the financial statements

For the Year Ended 31 March 2024

4 Support Costs
Costs of generating funds
Costs of generating voluntary incom
Donations and gifts
Legacies
Lotteries and raffles
Grants
Activities for generating trading fund
Retail
Commissions
Charitable activities :
Campaigns & research
Information & advice
Health & care
Wellbeing
Supporting the network
International
Governance costs
Total support costs		 Directorate
Finance
& legal
Office
management
IT
Human
resources
2024 Total
Directorate
Finance
& legal
Office
management
IT
Human
resources
2023 Total
£'000
£'000
£'000
£'000
£'000
£'000
£'000
£'000
£'000
£'000
£'000
£'000
e :
28
107
108
147
47
437
24
112
91
147
40
414
25
77
107
74
32
315
20
80
90
69
29
288
22
98
49
56
11
236
16
101
41
57
9
224
23
143
103
73
34
376
20
137
90
71
31
349
98
425
367
350
124
1,364
80
430
312
344
109
1,275
s :
50
293
136
576
906
1,961
52
297
119
564
753
1,785
50
136
119
188
49
542
40
131
100
182
39
492
100
429
255
764
955
2,503
92
428
219
746
792
2,277
73
154
167
387
198
979
62
157
141
342
195
897
60
130
137
319
180
826
51
129
116
281
181
758
16
47
37
86
119
305
14
34
31
75
133
287
80
165
180
419
206
1,050
67
170
152
370
201
960
86
178
196
455
216
1,131
73
184
165
402
209
1,033
64
107
148
102
31
452
47
113
120
96
24
400
379
781
865
1,768
950
4,743
314
787
725
1,566
943
4,335
482
570
48
40
10
1,150
336
591
41
42
7
1,017
1,059
2,205
1,535
2,922
2,039
9,760
822
2,236
1,297
2,698
1,851
8,904

In 2023/24, the method of analysing costs between direct costs and support costs has been reviewed. This follows from work done to improve visibility of the cost of activities across divisions. Where costs are specifically attributable to either raising funds or charitable activity these have been determined to be direct costs, irrelevant of the department in which these are incurred. Support costs have been determined to be solely the organisational overheads and include governance costs, payroll administration, procurement oversight, central finance, IT servers, central IT infrastructure, facilities and central HR services. The revision in the method of allocating costs has resulted in a reduction of those costs previously classed as support costs. Prior year support costs have been re-stated under the new methodology, with support costs reducing from £13.4m to £8.9m.

Governance costs are made up of the following:
Internal Audit
External Audit
Apportionment of Directors' cost (Based on time spent)
Other governance costs
Element contained within support costs
Other governance costs		 2024 Total
2023 Total
£'000
£'000
119
199
175
227
482
336
387
255
1,163
1,017
1,150
948
13
69
1,163
1,017

73

Age UK 06825798 Notes to the financial statements

For the Year Ended 31 March 2024

5 Staff costs and staff numbers

Staff costs and staff numbers
Salaries and wages
Social security costs
Pension costs		 Group
2024
£'000
41,024
3,524
3,784
48,332		 Group
2023
£'000
36,827
3,237
3,515
43,579		 Charity
2024
£'000
24,381
2,148
2,493
29,022		 Charity
2023
£'000
11,067
1,103
1,560
13,730

Total redundancy cost for 2024 was £181,956 for the Group (2023: £698,290) and £126,501 for the Charity (2023: £263,194). Termination payments are comprised of voluntary and compulsory redundancy and also settlement scheme payments. Payments are recognised in staff costs once they are quantifiable and upon communication of intention to pay. Unpaid redundancy at the balance sheet date was £0 (2023: £33,890)

At 31 March 2024 there are 1,594 staff members in the defined contribution schemes (2023: 1,548 members). Employers' contribution to the scheme totalled £3,220,824 in the year (2023: £2,836,111).

The average monthly headcount was 1,635 (2023: 1,603).

The average number of employees, calculated on a full time equivalent (FTE) basis was:

Age UK Charity
Subsidiary Charities
Trading companies		 Group
2024
1,251
26
27
1,304		 Group
2023
338
74
810
1,222

During the year employees within the Age UK Trading CIC and the Charity provided support services to the Group, including the Charity.

£60,000 - £70,000
£70,001 - £80,000
£80,001 - £90,000
£90,001 - £100,000
£100,001 - £110,000
£110,001 - £120,000
£120,001 - £130,000
£130,001 - £140,000
£170,001 - £180,000
£180,001 - £190,000
£190,001 - £200,000
£230,001 - £240,000
£240,001 - £250,000
Total banded employees
Number of staff staff
receiving remuneration above		 Charitable
activities
2024
22.7
14.7
3.3
2.0
1.5
2.0
0.7
1.0
-
-
1.9
-
-
49.8
 Trading
activities
2024
10.3
4.3
4.7
1.0
1.5
1.0
0.3
-
-
-
0.1
-
1.0
24.2		 Total
Group
2024
33.0
19.0
8.0
3.0
3.0
3.0
1.0
1.0
-
-
2.0
-
1.0
74.0		 Charitable
activities
2023
20.2
6.8
3.7
4.7
-
2.8
-
0.9
1.0
0.9
-
-
-
41.0		 Trading
activities
2023
3.8
6.2
1.3
1.3
1.0
0.2
-
1.1
-
0.1
-
1.0
-
16.0		 Total Group
2023
24.0
13.0
5.0
6.0
1.0
3.0
-
2.0
1.0
1.0
-
1.0
-
57.0

During the year, staff employed by the Trading CIC were transferred across to Age UK. Until October 2023, staff who provided support services to the group were employed by Age UK Trading CIC. Following October 2023, all staff providing support services are employed by Age UK and the costs are then recharged across the group. The salaries of these staff are recharged to the relevant part of the Group in proportion to the amount of time spent on work to support that part of the Group. Other staff work exclusively for either the charitable or trading activities of the Group.

The two columns on the left-hand side of the above table give a breakdown of how the time of the 74 staff who received more than £60,000 in 2023 (2023: 57) was divided between the charitable and commercial activities of the Group.

Of the 11 staff who were paid more than £100,000, 35% of their time was spent on the trading activities of the Group, generating profits available to the charity.

There were payments for redundancies or loss of office of £74,913 (2023: £424,004) to staff receiving remuneration of over £60,000.

74

Age UK 06825798 Notes to the financial statements

For the Year Ended 31 March 2024

5 Staff costs and staff numbers (continued)

Remuneration in respect of key management personnel

Key management personnel for the Group have been determined to be the Executive Directors and the Trustees (see page xx)

There were 12 Executive Directors who served in the year (2023: 11).

Remuneration in respect of Executive Directors including pension costs and employer national insurance was £1,759,391 of which £167,668 was employers' national insurance contributions (2023: £1,586,880 of which £153,932 was employers' national insurance contributions)

Remuneration in respect of the Chief Executive Officer including pension costs and employer national insurance was £234,071 of which £24,304 was employers' national insurance contributions (2023 £217,888 of which £23,520 was employers' national insurance contributions). The 2022/23 figures comprised 6 months of the current Chief Executive Officer and six months of interim Chief Executive Officer.

6 Trustee emoluments

The Trustees received no remuneration for their services to the Charity. The aggregated amount of expenses reimbursed to Trustees during the year was £7,025, 6 trustees (2023: £2,949, 4 Trustee).

Trustees' expenses incurred related to travel.

Indemnity insurance is provided for Trustees. During the period, total indemnity insurance paid by Age UK in relation to Trustees for the financial year ending 31[st] March 2024 was £17,813 (2023: £14,888).

7 Net income

This is stated after charging:

This is stated after charging:
2024 2023
£'000 £'000
Depreciation & amortisation of tangible and intangible fixed
assets		 1,023 1,117
Trustees’ reimbursed expenses 7 3
Interest payable 230 31
External Auditor's remuneration
Audit of these financial statements 98 120
Audit of subsidiary companies 77 107
Tax compliance 38 34
Operating lease rentals – buildings 5,750 5,599
Operating lease rentals – other 364 327

75

Age UK 06825798 Notes to the financial statements

For the Year Ended 31 March 2024

8 Tangible fixed assets

Group

Cost
Balance brought forward
Additions in year
Disposals in year
Reclassified as investment property
At 31 March 2024
Depreciation
Balance brought forward
Charge for the year
Disposals in year
Reclassified as investment property
At 31 March 2024
Net book value
At 31 March 2024
Net book value
At 31 March 2023
The Charity
Cost
Balance brought forward
Additions in year
Disposals in year
Reclassified as investment property
Net book value
Depreciation
Balance brought forward
Charge for the year
Disposals in year
Reclassified as investment property
At 31 March 2024
Net book value
At 31 March 2024
Net book value
At 31 March 2023		 Gifted
Housing
£'000
4,895
-
-
(220)
4,675
(668)
(75)
-
35
(708)
3,967
4,227
Gifted
Housing
£'000
4,895
-
-
(220)
4,675
-
(668)
(75)
-
35
(708)
3,967
4,227		 Short
leasehold
£'000
7,039
204
(120)
-
7,123
(5,907)
(554)
119
-
(6,342)
781
1,132
Short
leasehold
£'000
7,040
204
(120)
-
7,124
(5,907)
(554)
119
-
(6,342)
782
1,133		 Equipment,
fixtures and
fittings
£'000
9,740
2,059
(53)
-
11,746
(8,182)
(394)
52
-
(8,524)
3,222
1,558
Equipment,
fixtures and
fittings
£'000
9,687
2,059
-
-
11,746
-
(8,131)
(394)
-
-
(8,525)
-
3,221
1,556		 Total
£'000
21,674
2,263
(173)
(220)
23,544
(14,757)
(1,023)
171
35
(15,574)
7,970
6,917
Total
£'000
21,622
2,263
(120)
(220)
23,545
-
(14,706)
(1,023)
119
35
(15,575)
-
7,970
6,916

76

Age UK 06825798 Notes to the financial statements

For the Year Ended 31 March 2024

The net book value of freehold and long-leasehold properties comprises :

Fixed Assetsbuilding
value
Group 2024
£'000
Freehold interest, including gifted housing
2,983
Fixed Assetsland
value
Group 2024
£'000
Freehold interest, including gifted housing
983		 Group 2023
£'000
3,189
Group 2023
£'000
1,038		 Charity 2024
£'000
2,983
Charity 2024
£'000
983		 Charity 2023
£'000
3,189
Charity 2023
£'000
1,038

77

Age UK 06825798 Notes to the financial statements

For the Year Ended 31 March 2024

9 Investments

Market value at 1 April 2023
Additions
Transfer from Fixed Assets
Disposals
Net investment gains
Market value at 31 March 2024
Historic value at 31 March 2024		 Listed and
Unlisted
Investments
£'000
43,264
968
-
(10,021)
2,654
36,865
17,603		 Investment
Property
£'000
11,380
-
185
(1,488)
17
10,094
1,583		 Group
£'000
54,644
968
185
(11,509)
2,671
46,959
19,186		 Charity
£'000
58,144
968
185
(11,509)
2,671
50,459
22,686

Investment properties are properties donated to Age UK through the Gifted Housing programme or received as a legacy. When these properties are retained by the Charity instead of being sold they are classified as investment properties.

The investment properties of the Charity were last valued in March 2024.

Listed and Unlisted Investments comprise the following:

Sarasin & Partners Long and Short Term Investments:
Listed Investments
– Fixed Interest
– Global Equities
– Alternative Assets
Unlisted Investments
– Liquid Assets
Total Sarasin long term investments
Goldman Sachs Investment Management Long Term Investments:
Listed Investments
– Fixed Interest
– Global Equities
– Alternative Assets
Unlisted Investments
– Liquid Assets
Total Goldman Sachs long term investments
Endowment Funds:
Sarasin & Partners
– Fixed Interest
– Global Equities
– Alternative Assets
Unlisted Investments
– Liquid Assets
Total Sarasin Endowment Fund investments
Total value of Listed and Unlisted investments
Total value of Listed investments
Total value of Unlisted Investments		 2024
£'000
3,486
9,365
1,623
14,474
657
15,131
8,626
5,629
1,976
16,231
2,688
18,919
343
2,074
288
2,705
110
2,815
36,865
33,410
3,455		 2023
£'000
4,659
10,822
3,226
18,707
774
19,481
7,579
10,283
3,046
20,908
204
21,112
391
1,793
431
2,615
56
2,671
43,264
42,230
1,034

78

Age UK 06825798 Notes to the financial statements

For the Year Ended 31 March 2024

10
Stock
Finished goods and goods for resale
The amount of stock recognised as an expense in the income and expenditure ac
11
Debtors
Trade debtors
Amounts due from group undertakings
Other debtors
Prepayments and accrued income		 Group
2024
£'000
742
742
count for the year wa
Group
2024
£'000
2,896
-
550
22,273
25,719		 Group
Charity
2023
2024
£'000
£'000
415
-
415
-
s £944,001 (2023: £1,017,353)
Group
Charity
2023
2024
£'000
£'000
2,060
1,098
-
34
489
182
19,427
21,935
21,976
23,249		 Charity
2023
£'000
-
-
Charity
2023
£'000
1,056
422
384
18,084
19,946

£16.6m (2023: £15.0m) of Group and Charity prepayments and accrued income relates to accrued legacies.

79

Age UK 06825798 Notes to the financial statements

For the Year Ended 31 March 2024

12 Creditors: amounts falling due within one year

Trade creditors
Amounts due to group undertakings
Tax and social security payable
Other creditors
Loans
Grant accruals
Accruals and deferred income		 Group
2024
£'000
(4,568)
-
(1,279)
(331)
(6,000)
(3,237)
(4,109)
(19,524)		 Group
2023
£'000
(5,511)
-
(1,157)
(754)
(1,000)
(5,457)
(4,899)
(18,778)		 Charity
2024
£'000
(4,526)
(6,638)
(1,260)
(327)
(6,000)
(3,237)
(3,571)
(25,559)		 Charity
2023
£'000
(5,223)
(6,267)
(1,141)
(274)
(1,000)
(5,457)
(3,730)
(23,092)

The movements in deferred income are analysed as follows:

Deferred income at 1 April
Amounts released from previous years
Incoming resources deferred in the year
Deferred income at 31 March		 Group
2024
£'000
(1,570)
1,570
(1,251)
(1,251)		 Group
2023
£'000
(1,647)
1,647
(1,570)
(1,570)		 Charity
2024
£'000
(1,396)
1,396
(1,058)
(1,058)		 Charity
2023
£'000
(53)
53
(1,396)
(1,396)

Deferred income as at 31 March 2024 is made up of the following items: sales of lottery tickets for future draws £1,028,864 (2023: £1,235,536), insurance commission paid in advance £192,534 (2023: £166,654) and other deferred income £29,612 (2023: £167,511).

13

Creditors: amounts falling due after one year

Rent free period after one year
Creditors due after one year:
1-2 years
2-5 years
Over 5 years		 Group
2024
£'000
(605)
(605)
Group
2024
£'000
(202)
(324)
(79)
(605)		 Group
2023
£'000
(800)
(800)
Group
2023
£'000
(206)
(457)
(137)
(800)		 Charity
2024
£'000
(605)
(605)
Charity
2024
£'000
(202)
(324)
(79)
(605)		 Charity
2023
£'000
(800)
(800)
Charity
2023
£'000
(206)
(457)
(137)
(800)

80

Age UK 06825798 Notes to the financial statements

For the Year Ended 31 March 2024

14 Provisions for liabilities and charges

Provisions at 1 April
Utilised in the year
Charged to statement of financial activities
Provisions at 31 March
Provisions due within one year
Provisions due after more than one year		 Group
Group
Charity
Charity
2024
2023
2024
2023
£'000
£'000
£'000
£'000
(7,562)
(10,107)
(6,700)
(8,977)
1,977
3,257
1,738
2,922
(1,820)
(712)
(2,082)
(645)
(7,405)
(7,562)
(7,044)
(6,700)
Group
Group
Charity
Charity
2024
2023
2024
2023
£'000
£'000
£'000
£'000
(1,337)
(1,770)
(976)
(908)
(6,068)
(5,792)
(6,068)
(5,792)
(7,405)
(7,562)
(7,044)
(6,700)

The provision for liabilities and charges as at 31 March 2024 is made up of the following:

The following table details the effect (in £) of a change in each of these assumptions :

----- Start of picture text -----
Assumption Movement on provision
Change
+ 1 - 1
± 1.0% on
Discount rate 3.75% (74,996) 78,955
Discount rate
± 1.0% on
Annual care costs 2.9% annual cost 12,536 (12,536)
rate
± 1.0% on
Annual property costs 2.9% annual cost 7,002 (7,002)
rate
± 1.0% on
Annual management charge 2.9% annual cost 7,843 (7,843)
rate
Mortality rate
Life expectancy 86,155 (51,691)
± 1 per year
----- End of picture text -----

30/09/2024

81

Age UK 06825798 Notes to the financial statements

For the Year Ended 31 March 2024

15 Financial instruments

Financial instruments
Group Group Charity Charity
2024 2023 2024 2023
£'000 £'000 £'000 £'000
Assets - amortised 24,906 27,457 21,501 20,541
Assets at fair value 36,864 43,264 36,864 43,264
Liabilities - amortised (17,114) (16,558) (23,854) (21,355)

The company holds financial assets and financial liabilities of a kind that qualify as basic financial instruments. Basic financial instruments are initially recognised at transaction value and subsequently measured at the present value of future cash flows (amortised cost). No discounting has been applied to these financial instruments on the basis that the periods over which amounts will be settled are such that any discounting would be immaterial.

Financial assets held at amortised cost comprise cash at bank and in hand, short term cash deposits and debtors excluding prepayments.

Financial assets held at fair value include investments.

Financial liabilities held at amortised cost comprise short and long term creditors excluding deferred income and taxation

82

Age UK 06825798 Notes to the financial statements

For the Year Ended 31 March 2024
(A)
(A)
(A)
Hea
(B)
(C)
(F)
Note 16 Movement in funds
The Group
Endowed funds
Charity of C E Saunders
Gillingham
Miss E Lipson Trust
ACE Legacy Endowment Fund
Total endowed funds
Restricted funds United Kingdom
Campaigning and research
Information and Advice
Health and Care
Wellbeing
Supporting the network
Total Charitable Activities UK
Total United Kingdom
International
Development
Humanitarian
Other International Projects
Total International
Total restricted funds
Total Endowed and Restricted funds
Unrestricted Funds
Fixed asset funds
Investment property reserve
General Funds
Designated funds
Non-Charitable Trading Funds
Unrestricted Funds excluding Pension Reserve
Pension Reserve
Total funds		 2023 2024
31 March 2022 Income
Expenditure
Other gains
and losses
Transfers
(D)		 31 March 2023 Income
Expenditure
Other gains
and losses
Transfers
(D)		 31 March 2024 ( E )
£'000
1,416
1,558
228
50		 £'000
£'000
£'000
34
-
(75)
-
37
-
(83)
-
3
-
(7)
-
-
-
-
-		 £'000
1,375
1,512
224
50		 £'000
£'000
£'000
34
-
94
-
40
-
102
-
1
-
(4)
-
-
-
-
-		 £'000
1,503
1,654
221
50
3,252
1,676
2,000
2,055
l
2,550
3,142		 74
-
(165)
-
5,008
(5,364)
-
(490)
1,362
(3,009)
-
(80)
204
(1,360)
-
26
4,405
(6,034)
-
116
972
(1,081)
-
(532)		 3,161
830
273
925
1,037
2,501		 75
-
192
-
3,365
(3,975)
-
51
1,477
(1,731)
-
(7)
-
(907)
-
(1)
2,888
(2,799)
(1)
(10)
957
(1,026)
-
(1,708)		 3,428
271
12
17
1,115
724
11,423 11,951
(16,848)
-
(960)		 5,566 8,687
(10,438)
(1)
(1,675)		 2,139
11,423
15
204
438		 11,951
(16,848)
-
(960)
1,864
(1,947)
-
73
14,046
(13,892)
-
-
267
(295)
-
-		 5,566
5
358
410		 8,687
(10,438)
(1)
(1,675)
1,609
(1,592)
-
13
10,023
(10,244)
-
(1)
411
(721)
-
53		 2,139
35
136
153
657
12,080		 16,177
(16,134)
-
73
28,128
(32,982)
-
(887)		 773
6,339		 12,043
(12,557)
-
65
20,730
(22,995)
(1)
(1,610)		 324
2,463
15,332 28,202
(32,982)
(165)
(887)		 9,500 20,805
(22,995)
191
(1,610)		 5,891
3,974
11,710
32,552
11,462
6,171		 -
-
-
-
-
-
-
(191)
-
-
-
(330)
84,301
(77,014)
(3,512)
(3,848)
-
(6,766)
-
(399)
10,722
(13,076)
-
403		 -
3,783
11,380
32,479
4,297
4,220		 -
-
-
-
-
-
-
1,256
-
-
-
(1,286)
96,411
(99,567)
636
(7,915)
-
(1,721)
-
5,992
4,482
(3,228)
-
45		 -
5,039
10,094
22,044
8,568
5,519
65,869
(1,213)		 95,023
(96,856)
(3,512)
(4,365)
-
(679)
(3,373)
5,252		 56,159
(13)		 100,893
(104,516)
636
(1,908)
-
(563)
(2,948)
3,518		 51,264
(6)
79,988 123,225
(130,517)
(7,050)
-		 65,646 121,698
(128,074)
(2,121)
-		 57,149

83

Age UK 06825798 Notes to the financial statements

For the Year Ended 31 March 2024

Note 16 Movement in funds (continued)
Endowed funds
Charity of C E Saunders
(A)
Gillingham
(A)
Miss E Lipson Trust
(A)
ACE Legacy Endowment Fund
Total Endowed Funds
Restricted Funds United Kingdom
Campaigning and research
Information and Advice
Health and Care
Wellbeing
Supporting the network
Total United Kingdom
(B)
International
Development
Humanitarian
(C)
(F)
Age UK the Charity
Other International Projects
Total International
Total Restricted Funds
Total Endowed and Restricted funds
Unrestricted Funds
Fixed asset funds
Investment property reserve
General Funds
Designated funds
Unrestricted Funds excluding Pension Reserve
Pension Reserve
Total funds
2023 2024
31 March 2022 Income
Expenditure
Other gains
and losses
**Transfers **		 31 March 2023 Income
Expenditure
Other gains
and losses
Transfers		 31 March 2024
1,416
1,558
228
50		 £'000
£'000
£'000
£'000
34
-
(75)
-
37
-
(83)
-
3
-
(7)
-
-
-
-
-		 £'000
1,375
1,512
224
50		 £'000
£'000
£'000
£'000
34
-
94
-
40
-
102
-
1
-
(4)
-
-
-
-
-		 £'000
1,503
1,654
221
50
3,252
135
1,118
2,054
2,367
1,312		 74
-
(165)
-
6,168
(5,363)
-
(483)
1,771
(2,659)
-
(74)
130
(1,283)
-
25
3,694
(4,916)
-
(108)
2,051
(880)
-
(525)		 3,161
457
156
926
1,037
1,958		 75
-
192
-
3,364
(3,484)
-
51
1,108
(1,045)
-
(7)
81
(987)
-
(4)
3,177
(3,088)
-
(7)
2,484
(1,834)
-
(1,710)		 3,428
388
212
16
1,119
898
6,986
-
-
292		 13,814
(15,101)
-
(1,165)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
102
(131)
-
-		 4,534
-
-
263		 10,214
(10,438)
-
(1,677)
1,195
(1,195)
-
-
10
(10)
-
-
-
(357)
-
96		 2,633
-
-
2
292
7,278		 102
(131)
-
-
13,916
(15,232)
-
(1,165)		 263
4,797		 1,205
(1,562)
-
96
11,419
(12,000)
-
(1,581)		 2
2,635
10,530 13,990
(15,232)
(165)
(1,165)		 7,958 11,494
(12,000)
192
(1,581)		 6,063
3,947
11,710
29,918
11,452		 -
-
-
(166)
-
-
-
(330)
86,727
(78,863)
(3,779)
(3,529)
-
(6,765)
-
-		 3,781
11,380
30,474
4,687		 -
-
-
1,258
-
-
-
(1,286)
90,894
(94,915)
2,005
(7,864)
-
(1,406)
-
5,991		 5,039
10,094
20,594
9,272
57,027
(1,213)		 86,727
(85,628)
(3,779)
(4,025)
-
(664)
(3,326)
5,190		 50,322
(13)		 90,894
(96,321)
2,005
(1,901)
-
(557)
(2,918)
3,482		 44,999
(6)
66,344 100,717
(101,524)
(7,270)
-		 58,267 102,388
(108,878)
(721)
-		 51,056

84

Age UK 06825798 Notes to the financial statements

For the Year Ended 31 March 2024

Note 16 Movement in funds (continued)

International
Development
Humanitarian
Other International Projects
Total International
Total Restricted Funds
Unrestricted Funds
Fixed asset funds
Gains on investment assets
Property revaluation reserve
General Funds
Unrestricted Funds
Pension Reserve
Total funds
Help Age International UK		 2023 2023 2023 2024 2024
31 March 2022 Income
Expenditure
Other gains
and losses
**Transfers **		 31 March 2023 Income
Expenditure
Other gains
and losses
Transfers		 31 March 2024
14
204
148		 £'000
£'000
£'000
1,864
(1,947)
‐
73
14,046
(13,892)
‐
-
181
(181)
-
-		 £'000
4
358
148		 £'000
£'000
£'000
1,213
(1,196)
‐
12
10,022
(10,242)
‐
-
766
(722)
-
(41)		 £'000
33
138
151
366 16,091
(16,020)
‐
73		 510 12,001
(12,160)
‐
(29)		 322
366 16,091
(16,020)
-
73		 510 12,001
(12,160)
-
(29)		 322
-
-
-
-		 -
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
5,867
(5,794)
-
(73)		 -
-
-
-		 -
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
6,373
(6,402)
-
29		 -
-
-
-
-
-		 5,867
(5,794)
-
(73)
-
-
-
-		 -
-		 6,373
(6,402)
-
29
-
-
-
-		 -
-
366 21,958
(21,814)
-
-		 510 18,374
(18,562)
-
-		 322

Notes re. the Group:

A: The Age UK Endowment Funds – CE Saunders, Edna Lipson and the Gillingham Fund – are funds which were originally gifted to Age UK and are allowed to be invested in a strategy designed to create income, all of which is paid to Age UK, but where the actual principal gift cannot be touched or realised to cash and spent by Age UK.

Campaigning and research funds:

Sports England: We are undefeatable camaign. £264k

Wellbeing funds:

Digital Champions Program: Helping digitally excluded older people to get online by providing them with accessible technology and technical support. £380k Senior Safety Elder Abuse: For the prevention of, or protection from, abusea gainst the elderly. £253k

Scams Prevention and Victim Support. £283k

85

Age UK 06825798 Notes to the financial statements

For the Year Ended 31 March 2024

17 Analysis of group and charity net assets between funds

The Group
Fixed Assets
Tangible fixed assets
Investments
Current assets
Stock
Debtors
Cash at bank and in hand
Liabilities
Current liabilities
Long-term liabilities
Provisions for liabilities and charges
Defined-benefit pension scheme liability		 2024
The Charity
Fixed Assets
Tangible fixed assets
Investments
Current assets
Stock
Debtors
Cash at bank and in hand
Liabilities
Current liabilities
Long-term liabilities
Provisions for liabilities and charges
Defined-benefit pension scheme liability		 2024

86

Age UK 06825798 Notes to the financial statements

For the Year Ended 31 March 2024

18 Pension schemes

Cost to the Group
Defined-benefit schemes
Age Concern Section
Help the Aged Section
Total defined-benefit schemes costs
Defined-contribution scheme
Age UK Pension Plan
Pensions cost		 Group
2024
£'000
270
293
563
3,221
3,784		 Group
2023
£'000
366
312
678
2,836
3,514		 Charity
2024
£'000
264
293
557
1,936
2,493		 Charity
2023
£'000
352
312
664
895
1,559

During the year Age UK Group operated two pension schemes; one defined contribution scheme and one defined benefit scheme, both of which are multi-employer schemes.

Apart from the two schemes operated by Age UK, Age UK also hold an interest in The Pension Trust's Growth Plan. The Plan was used for members wishing to pay Additional Voluntary contributions (AVCs) under the old Help the Aged defined benefit scheme. The scheme is in deficit and should Age UK withdraw from the scheme, Age UK would be required to pay its share of the deficit. At end of September 2014 Age UK's debt on withdrawal was £467,307. A recovery plan has been agreed to eliminate the deficit requiring employers to pay contributions with effect from 1 April 2013. The original recovery plan was to run for ten years but this has been extended until 31 August 2025. The deficit contributions payable will increase by 3% each year in April. For the year ending 31 March 2025 Age UK is expected to pay contributions of £6,323.

The defined contribution scheme

The Age UK Pension Plan is a Group Personal Pension and the amounts charged to the SOFA for the defined contribution scheme are the contributions paid in the year. Differences between contributions payable in the year and contributions actually paid are shown as either accruals or prepayments in the balance sheet. As at 31 March 2024 included in liabilities due within one year there was an amount of £384,956 (2023: £353,713) due for employer and employee pension contributions, these were paid across to the pension scheme in April 2023. Age UK's original staging date for auto enrolment was 1 September 2013 and in line with legal requirements a re-enrolment exercise was undertaken on 1st September 2016 and 2019. From April 2019 auto enrolment rates were increased to an employee rate of 2% with Age UK paying 6% as an employer contribution to meet the new combined rate required by legislation. Members have always had the flexibility to choose a higher level of personal contribution although a corresponding increase in the employer contribution rate was removed from 1 April 2020 after consultation with staff due to the financial impact of the pandemic on Age UK. This was brought back in from April 2022. Employers contribution to the scheme totalled £3.22m in the year (2023: £2.84m).

The defined benefit scheme

In October 2012 the two defined-benefit schemes, which were legacy schemes from Age Concern England and Help the Aged, were merged on a sectionalised basis under the Age UK Retirement Benefit Scheme. Both schemes being multi employer schemes and both closed to new entrants and future accruals. The two sections in the scheme are the Age Concern section (AC) and the Help the Aged (HtA) section.

For the year ending 31 March 2024 Age UK expect to pay contributions of £3.65m, with £1.8m in relation to the Age Concern section and £1.85m in relation to the Help the Aged section.

These contributions include an allowance for administration expenses and Pension Protection Fund The most recent full actuarial valuation for the Age UK Retirement Benefits Scheme took place on 31 March 2022, The share of the net liability allocated to each of the participating employers has been determined based on their respective liability share at 31 March 2022.

As required by FRS 102 the defined benefit liabilities have been measured using the projected unit method. The tables below state the FRS 102 actuarial assumptions upon which the valuation of the scheme was based.

Principal financial assumptions at the balance sheet date 2024 2024 2023 2023
AC HtA AC HtA
% % % %
Inflation assumption (RPI) 3.20 3.20 3.25 3.25
Inflation assumption (CPI) 2.40 2.75 2.45 2.80
Rate of increase in salaries N/A 3.20 N/A 3.25
Discount rate for Scheme liabilities 4.90 4.90 4.85 4.85
Pension increases:
RPI inflation subject to a minimum of 3% pa and a maximum of 5% pa 3.70 2.70 3.70 3.70
RPI inflation subject to a maximum of 2.5% pa 2.05 1.90 2.10 2.10
Principal demographic assumptions at the balance sheet date 2024 2024 2023 2023
AC HtA AC HtA
Years Years Years Years
Assumed life expectancies on retirement at age 65
Retiring Today - Males 86.7 86.7 86.8 86.8
Retiring Today - Females 88.6 88.6 88.8 88.8
Retiring in 20 years - Males 88.0 88.0 88.1 88.1
Retiring in 20 years - Females 90.1 90.1 90.2 90.2

Allowance has been made for all members to exchange 70% of the maximum cash allowance available upon retirement. The mortality assumptions are:

100% of S3PMA base tables for males 100% of S3PFA_M base tables for females projected by year of birth assuming future improvements in line with CMI 2022 projections (with parameters Sk = 7.0, A= 0.25% and w2020/w2021=0%) and a long-term rate of improvement of 1.25% pa.

87

Age UK 06825798 Notes to the financial statements

For the Year Ended 31 March 2024

18
Pension schemes (continued)
Major categories of plan assets.
The Group
Equities
Diversified Growth
Property
Gilts and Bonds
Cash
The Charity
Equities
Diversified Growth
Property
Gilts and Bonds
Cash		 2024
AC
£'000
8,455
2,883
7,803
37,161
2,004
58,306
8,262
2,817
7,625
36,313
1,959
56,976		 2024
HtA
£'000
9,624
2,899
7,066
37,560
2,117
59,266
9,624
2,899
7,066
37,560
2,117
59,266		 2024
2023
Total
AC
£'000
%
£'000
18,079
15.4
5,390
5,782
4.9
2,844
14,869
12.6
7,715
74,721
63.6
41,576
4,121
3.5
1,697
117,572
100
59,222
17,886
15.4
5,177
5,716
4.9
2,732
14,691
12.6
7,411
73,873
63.6
39,937
4,076
3.5
1,629
116,242
100
56,886		 2023
HtA
£'000
7,339
2,811
6,868
39,399
2,058
58,475
7,339
2,811
6,868
39,399
2,058
58,475		 2023
Total
£'000
%
12,729
10.8
5,655
4.8
14,583
12.4
80,975
68.8
3,755
3.2
117,697
100
12,516
10.8
5,543
4.8
14,279
12.4
79,336
68.8
3,687
3.2
115,361
100

None of the scheme's assets are invested in any property or other assets currently used by the Group.

Reconciliation of funded status to balance sheet
The Group
Fair value of assets
Present value of funded defined benefit obligations
Funded status
Unrecognised asset
Liability recognised on the balance sheet
The Charity
Fair value of assets
Present value of funded defined benefit obligations
Funded status
Unrecognised asset
Liability recognised on the balance sheet
Amounts recognised in the income statement
The Group
Operating cost
Past service cost
Administration expenses
Interest on net defined liability
Pension expense recognised in the income statement
The Charity
Operating cost
Past service cost
Administration expenses
Interest on net defined liability
Pension expense recognised in the income statement
Amounts recognised in Other Comprehensive Income
The Group
Asset gains/(losses) arising during the year
Liability gains/(losses) arising during the year
Change in the effect of the asset ceiling
Pension gains/(losses) recognised in the income statement
The Charity
Asset (losses)/ gains arising during the year
Liability gains/ (losses) arising during the year
Change in the effect of the asset ceiling
Pension gain recognised in the income statement		 2024
AC
£'000
58,307
(55,097)
3,210
(3,210)
-
56,976
(53,839)
3,137
(3,137)
-
2024
AC
£'000
-
270
-
270
-
264
-
264
2024
AC
£'000
(1,404)
(470)
342
(1,532)
(1,377)
(459)
334
(1,502)		 2024
HtA
£'000
59,266
(58,041)
1,225
(1,231)
(6)
59,266
(58,041)
1,225
(1,231)
(6)
2024
HtA
£'000
-
293
-
293
-
293
-
293
2024
HtA
£'000
(985)
(201)
(230)
(1,416)
(985)
(201)
(230)
(1,416)		 2024
Total
£'000
117,573
(113,138)
4,435
(4,441)
(6)
116,242
(111,880)
4,362
(4,368)
(6)
2024
Total
£'000
-
563
-
563
-
557
-
557
2024
Total
£'000
(2,389)
(671)
112
(2,948)
(2,362)
(660)
104
(2,918)		 2023
AC
£'000
59,223
(55,609)
3,614
(3,614)
-
56,887
(53,417)
3,470
(3,470)
-
2023
AC
£'000
-
366
-
366
-
352
-
352
2023
AC
£'000
(19,672)
16,018
1,337
(2,317)
(19,123)
15,557
1,296
(2,270)		 2023
HtA
£'000
58,475
(57,486)
989
(1,002)
(13)
58,475
(57,486)
989
(1,002)
(13)
2023
HtA
£'000
-
314
(2)
312
-
314
(2)
312
2023
HtA
£'000
(18,002)
17,947
(1,001)
(1,056)
(18,002)
17,947
(1,001)
(1,056)		 2023
Total
£'000
117,698
(113,095)
4,603
(4,616)
(13)
115,362
(110,903)
4,459
(4,472)
(13)
2023
Total
£'000
-
680
(2)
678
-
666
(2)
664
2023
Total
£'000
(37,674)
33,965
336
(3,373)
(37,125)
33,504
295
(3,326)

88

Age UK 06825798 Notes to the financial statements

For the Year Ended 31 March 2024

18
Pension schemes (continued)
Change in the fair value of Scheme assets
2024
AC
The Group
£'000
Opening fair value of Scheme assets
59,223
Net increase in assets from disposals/acquisitions
(1,008)
Interest income on Scheme assets
2,588
(Losses) / gains on Scheme assets
(1,404)
Employer contributions
1,802
Net benefits paid
(2,624)
Administration costs incurred
(270)
Closing fair value of Scheme assets
58,307
Change in the fair value of Scheme assets
2024
AC
The Charity
£'000
Opening fair value of Scheme assets
56,886
Interest income on Scheme assets
2,529
(Losses) / gains on Scheme assets
(1,377)
Employer contributions
1,766
Net benefits paid
(2,564)
Administration costs incurred
(264)
Closing fair value of Scheme assets
56,976
Actual return on Scheme assets
2024
AC
The Group
£'000
Interest income on Scheme assets
2,588
(Losses)/ Gains on scheme assets
(1,404)
Actual return on Scheme assets
1,184
The Charity
Interest income on Scheme assets
2,529
(Losses)/ Gains on scheme assets
(1,377)
Actual return on Scheme assets
1,152
Change in the present value of the defined benefit obligation
2024
The Group
AC
£'000
Opening defined benefit obligation
55,609
Net increase in liabilities from disposals/acquisitions
(946)
Interest expense on defined benefit obligation
2,588
Past service cost
-
Actuarial (gains)/ losses arising on scheme liabilities
470
Net benefits paid
(2,624)
Closing defined benefit obligation
55,097
2024
The Charity
AC
£'000
Opening defined benefit obligation
53,415
Interest expense on defined benefit obligation
2,529
Actuarial (gains)/ losses arising on scheme liabilities
459
Net benefits paid
(2,564)
Closing defined benefit obligation
53,839		 2024
HtA
£'000
58,475
-
2,717
(985)
1,716
(2,364)
(293)
59,266
2024
HtA
£'000
58,475
2,717
(985)
1,716
(2,364)
(293)
59,266
2024
HtA
£'000
2,717
(985)
1,732
2,717
(985)
1,732
2024
HtA
£'000
57,487
-
2,717
-
201
(2,364)
58,041
2020
HtA
£'000
57,487
2,717
201
(2,364)
58,041		 2024
Total
£'000
117,698
(1,008)
5,305
(2,389)
3,518
(4,988)
(563)
117,573
2024
Total
£'000
115,361
5,246
(2,362)
3,482
(4,928)
(557)
116,242
2024
Total
£'000
5,305
(2,389)
2,916
5,246
(2,362)
2,884
2024
Total
£'000
113,096
(946)
5,305
-
671
(4,988)
113,138
2024
Total
£'000
110,902
5,246
660
(4,928)
111,880		 2023
AC
£'000
77,635
-
1,992
(19,672)
2,683
(3,049)
(366)
59,223
2023
AC
£'000
74,751
1,918
(19,123)
2,622
(2,929)
(352)
56,887
2023
AC
£'000
1,992
(19,672)
(17,680)
1,918
(19,123)
(17,205)
2023
AC
£'000
72,684
-
1,992
-
(16,018)
(3,049)
55,609
2023
AC
£'000
69,985
1,918
(15,557)
(2,929)
53,417		 2023
HtA
£'000
74,404
-
2,080
(18,002)
2,568
(2,261)
(314)
58,475
2023
HtA
£'000
74,404
2,080
(18,002)
2,568
(2,261)
(314)
58,475
2023
HtA
£'000
2,080
(18,002)
(15,922)
2,080
(18,002)
(15,922)
2023
HtA
£'000
75,617
-
2,077
-
(17,947)
(2,261)
57,486
2019
HtA
£'000
75,617
2,077
(17,947)
(2,261)
57,486		 2023
Total
£'000
152,039
-
4,072
(37,674)
5,251
(5,310)
(680)
117,698
2023
Total
£'000
149,155
3,998
(37,125)
5,190
(5,190)
(666)
115,362
2023
Total
£'000
4,072
(37,674)
(33,602)
3,998
(37,125)
(33,127)
2023
Total
£'000
148,301
-
4,069
-
(33,965)
(5,310)
113,095
2023
Total
£'000
145,602
3,995
(33,504)
(5,190)
110,903

In June 2023, the High Court handed down a decision (Virgin Media Limited v NTL Pension Trustees II Limited and others) which potentially has implications for the validity of amendments made by pension schemes, including the Scheme, which were contracted-out on a salary-related basis between 6 April 1997 and the abolition of contracting-out in 2016. The Court of Appeal upheld the original decision, although there remains uncertainty about whether the case will be subject to a further appeal or the position be impacted by changes in legislation, as well as any possible impact on the Scheme. Given this uncertainty, the updated valuation as at 31 March 2024 makes no allowance for the possible impact of the ruling as it is currently unclear whether any additional liabilities might arise, and if they were to arise, how they would be reliably measured. Age UK will continue to monitor developments to decide whether any subsequent actions or amendments to liabilities are required.

89

Age UK 06825798 Notes to the financial statements

For the Year Ended 31 March 2024

INCOME AND EXPENDITURE
INCOME FROM:
Voluntary income
Donations and gifts
Legacies
Grants, corporate and trusts
Lotteries and raffles
Total voluntary income
Trading activities
Charity Shops
Financial Services
Independent Living Solutions
Other trading income
Total income from trading activities
Investment income and interest
Charitable activities
Campaigning and research
Information and advice
Health & care
Wellbeing
Supporting the network
International
Total income from charitable activities
Other income
Net (loss)/gain on disposal of fixed assets
TOTAL INCOME
EXPENDITURE ON:
Cost of raising funds
Cost of generating voluntary income
Cost of generating trading income
Cost of Charity Shops
Cost of Financial Services
Cost of Independent Living Solutions
Other costs of raising funds
Total cost of generating trading income
Total cost of raising funds		 Unrestricted
£'000
8,962
25,366
1,183
10,087
Con
Group ex		 Restricted and
endowed
£'000
1,886
336
23,055
926
tinued Operation
cluding Age Cym		 2023
£'000
10,848
25,702
24,238
11,013
71,801
37,318
6,220
2,214
199
45,951
966
-
31
-
300
2,176
-
2,507
(11)
121,214
(20,501)
(31,115)
(5,142)
(1,263)
-
(37,520)
(58,021)
s
ru 2023		 Unrestricted
£'000
40
181
4
-
Disco
A		 Restricted and
endowed
£'000
-
-
1,670
-
ntinued Operatio
ge Cymru 2023		 2023

£'000
40
181
1,674
-
1,895
-
-
-
112
112
4
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
2,011
(99)
-
-
-
-
-
(99)
ns		 Unrestricted
£'000
9,002
25,547
1,187
10,087		 Restricted and
endowed
£'000
1,886
336
24,725
926
Total
Total 2023		 2023
£'000
10,888
25,883
25,912
11,013
45,598
37,318
6,220
2,214
119		 26,203
-
-
-
80		 225
-
-
-
89		 1,670
-
-
-
23		 45,823
37,318
6,220
2,214
208		 27,873
-
-
-
103		 73,696
37,318
6,220
2,214
311
45,871
892		 80
74		 89
4		 23
-		 45,960
896		 103
74		 46,063
970
-
31
-
300
2,024
-		 -
-
-
-
152
-		 -
-
-
-
-
-		 -
-
-
-
-
-		 -
31
-
300
2,024
-		 -
-
-
-
152
-		 -
31
-
300
2,176
-
2,355
(11)		 152
-		 -
-		 -
-		 2,355
(11)		 152
-		 2,507
(11)
94,705 26,509 318 1,693 95,203 28,202 123,225
(20,501)
(31,115)
(5,142)
(1,263)
-		 -
-
-
-
-		 (99)
-
-
-
-		 -
-
-
-
-		 (20,600)
(31,115)
(5,142)
(1,263)
-		 -
-
-
-
-		 (20,600)
(31,115)
(5,142)
(1,263)
-
(37,520) - - - (37,520) - (37,520)
(58,021) - (99) - (58,120) - (58,120)
Net resources available for charitable activities 36,684 26,509 63,193 219 1,693 1,912 36,903 28,202 65,105
Charitable activities
Campaigning and research
Information and advice
Health & care
Wellbeing
Supporting the network
International
Total expenditure on charitable activities
TOTAL EXPENDITURE
Tax (payable)/credit
Net gains/(losses) on investments
NET INCOME/(EXPENDITURE)
Other recognised gains and losses
Actuarial (losses)/gains on pension scheme
Revaluation gains
Transfers between funds
NET MOVEMENT IN FUNDS
Reconciliation of funds
Total funds bought forward
Net movement in funds
Total funds carried forward		 (6,514)
(5,456)
(1,810)
(8,122)
(11,622)
(5,636)		 (5,359)
(2,659)
(1,283)
(4,979)
(884)
(16,020)		 (11,873)
(8,115)
(3,093)
(13,101)
(12,506)
(21,656)
(70,344)
(128,365)
(1)
(3,815)
(10,967)
(3,354)
138
-
(14,183)
78,253
(14,183)
64,070		 (126)
(129)
(40)
59
(18)
-		 (10)
(469)
(76)
(1,054)
(189)
-		 (136)
(598)
(116)
(995)
(207)
-
(2,052)
(2,151)
-
-
(140)
(19)
-
-
(159)
1,735
(159)
1,576		 (6,640)
(5,585)
(1,850)
(8,063)
(11,640)
(5,636)		 (5,369)
(3,128)
(1,359)
(6,033)
(1,073)
(16,020)		 (12,009)
(8,713)
(3,209)
(14,096)
(12,713)
(21,656)
(39,160) (31,184) (254) (1,798) (39,414) (32,982) (72,396)
(97,181) (31,184) (353) (1,798) (97,534) (32,982) (130,516)
(1)
(3,650)		 -
(165)		 -
-		 -
-		 (1)
(3,650)		 -
(165)		 (1)
(3,815)
(6,127) (4,840) (35) (105) (6,162) (4,945) (11,107)
(3,354)
138
790		 -
-
(790)		 (19)
-
99		 -
-
(99)		 (3,373)
138
889		 -
-
(901)		 (3,373)
138
-
(8,553) (5,630) 45 (204) (8,508) (5,834) (14,342)
63,126
(8,553)		 15,127
(5,630)		 1,530
46		 205
(204)		 64,656
(8,508)		 15,332
(5,834)		 79,988
(14,342)
54,573 9,497 1,575 1 56,148 9,498 65,646

90

Age UK 06825798 Notes to the financial statements

For the Year Ended 31 March 2024

20 Taxation and charitable status

Age UK is considered to pass the tests set out in Paragraph 1 Schedule 6 Finance Act 2010 and therefore it meets the definition of a charitable company for UK Corporation tax purposes. Accordingly, the Charity is potentially exempt from taxation in respect of income or capital gains received within categories covered by Chapter 3 Part 11 Corporation Tax Act 2010 or Section 256 of the Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992, to the extent that such income or gains are applied exclusively to charitable purposes. The Charity's trading subsidiaries will pay available profits to the Charity under the Gift Aid scheme, thereby eliminating or reducing their respective corporation tax liabilities.

21 Company limited by guarantee

The liability of the members of the Charity is limited by guarantee to £1 each.

22 Operating lease commitments

The Group had total commitments at the year end under operating leases expiring as follows:

Within one year
Within one to five years
After five years		 2024
£'000
4,870
8,292
82
13,244		 2023
£'000
4,994
7,164
10
12,168

23 Contingent liabilities and capital commitments

In the year ended 31 March 2024 there is a contingent liability of £445,627 (2023: £441,853). This is in relation to the potential need to incur costs to set up and run a separate legal entity to contain the gifted housing operation. The probability of the costs being paid out is low.

There were no other contingent liabilities and no capital commitments as at 31 March 2024 or at 31 March 2023.

24 Analysis of changes in net debt

Cash at bank and in hand
Cash at bank and in hand - Age Cymru
Cash and cash equivalents
Bank loans
Total		 At 1 April
2023
Cash flows
At 31 March
2024
£'000
£'000
£'000
7,455
(4,156)
3,299
1,392
(1,392)
-
8,847
(5,548)
3,299
(1,000)
(5,000)
(6,000)
7,847
(10,548)
(2,701)

91

Age UK 06825798 Notes to the financial statements

For the Year Ended 31 March 2024

25 Related party transactions

Group transactions

Many group entities benefit from centrally provided support services. In October 2023, support services was transferred from Age UK Trading CIC to Age UK. These costs are apportioned to group entities on an annual basis according to management estimations of time and resource expended. Costs are also recharged between Age UK and Age UK Trading CIC relating to retail activities.

The major support cost and retail reallocations in the year ended 31 March 2024 were as follows:

£'k £'k £'k £'k £'k
To
From		 Age UK Age UK
TradingCIC		 AgeCo Help Age
International		 Total
Age UK - 408 557 360 1,325
Age UK Trading CIC 21,398 - 806 500 22,704
Total 21,398 408 1,363 860 24,029

Grants awarded to subsidiary charities in the year are summarised here:

£'k £'k
To
From		 Help Age
International
UK		 Total
Age UK 7,433 7,433
Total 7,433 7,433

A grant of £33,675 was awarded to Age UK Bath and North East Somerset where our Trustee Roy Shubhabrata is a director.

A grant of £62,556 was awarded to Age UK North Tyneside where our Trustee Dawn McNally is Chief Executive.

Outstanding subsidiary balances at year end are as follows:

2024 2024 £'000 £'000 £'000
Amounts owed to: Amounts owed by:
Age UK
Charity		 AgeCo Ltd Help Age
International
UK
AgeCo Ltd 3,840 3,840 - -
Age UK Charity 31 - - 31
Age UK Trading CIC 2,798 2,798 - -
Total 6,669 6,638 - 31

92

Age UK 06825798 Notes to the financial statements

For the Year Ended 31 March 2024

26 Subsidiary undertakings

During the year Age UK Group carried out activities through the following wholly owned trading subsidiaries. These entities' principal activities are detailed below:

AgeCo Limited : Provides insurance services and other products for older people.

Age UK Trading CIC : Provides Age UK with staffing and management for Age UK's charity shops up until 31st October 2023. On the 1st November 2023 this activity was transferred to Age UK. The continued operations are the sale of bought in goods.

HelpAge International UK : Raises funds and carries out Age UK's international charitable work.

Profit and loss account
Turnover
Expenditure
Profit/(loss) for the year
Gift aid paid to parent
Result for the year transferred to reserves
Balance Sheet
Total fixed assets
Current assets
Total liabilities
Net assets/(Liabilities)		 £'000
2,507
(1,210)
1,297
(651)
646
£'000
-
3,935
(154)
3,781
Age UK Trading
CIC
Age UK Trading
CIC		 £'000
9,434
(6,595)
2,839
(1,924)
915
£'000
-
6,264
(766)
5,498
AgeCo Limited
AgeCo Limited		 £'000
18,374
(18,562)
(188)
-
(188)
£'000
-
395
(73)
322
HelpAge
International UK
HelpAge
International UK		 Total
2024
£'000
30,315
(26,367)
3,948
(2,575)
1,373
Total
2024
£'000
-
10,594
(993)
9,601

93

Age UK 06825798 Notes to the financial statements

For the Year Ended 31 March 2024

27 Grants payable

2024

Analysis of grants paid in the year highlighting those institutions receiving more than £100,000

Age UK National Partners
Age Cymru
Age Scotland
Age UK Brand Partners
Age NI
Age UK Berkshire
Age UK Buckinghamshire
Age UK Camden
Age UK Croydon
Age UK Hertfordshire
Age UK Lancashire
Age UK Leicestershire & Rutland
Age UK Nottingham & Notts
Age UK Oxfordshire
Age UK Redbridge Barking & Havering
Age UK Sheffield
Age UK W Sussex Brighton Hove
International
Help Age International
Other Grants paid (<£100k per recipient per year)
Total Grants payable		 Campaigns
& Research
Information &
Advice
Health &
Care
Wellbeing
Support
the
Network
International
2024 Total
Awards
£'000
£'000
£'000
£'000
£'000
£'000
£'000
-
-
-
-
216
-
216
2
-
5
-
-
381
-
386
3
-
5
-
-
597
-
602
5
-
-
-
-
292
-
292
2
-
-
18
-
489
-
507
7
-
-
-
-
106
-
106
5
-
13
18
75
55
-
161
9
-
13
-
-
177
-
190
5
-
-
10
41
58
-
109
11
-
-
18
59
176
-
253
14
-
-
-
29
189
-
218
8
-
-
-
93
127
-
220
9
-
-
-
58
48
-
106
11
-
13
-
18
80
-
111
8
-
20
-
77
56
-
153
9
-
2
-
8
730
-
740
18
-
61
64
458
2,583
-
3,166
116
-
-
-
-
-
15,639
15,639
80
-
-
-
-
-
15,639
15,639
80
-
66
64
458
3,180
15,639
19,407
201
30
412
365
908
1,929
-
3,644
30
478
429
1,366
5,109
15,639
23,051

Included in the above grants are amounts paid out under the legacy protocol which allows Network partners a share of legacies left to Age UK where the donor is known to the partner.

94

Grants payable

2023

Analysis of grants paid in the year highlighting those institutions receiving more than £100,000

Age UK National Partners
Age Scotland
Age UK Brand Partners
Age Cymru Dyfed
Age UK Barnet
Age UK Camden
Age UK Darlington
Age UK Devon
Age UK Durham County
Age UK East Cheshire
Age UK East London
Age UK East Sussex
Age UK Gloucesterhsire
Age UK Hammersmith
Age UK Herne Bay
Age UK Hertfordshire
Age UK Isle of Wight
Age UK Kensington & Chelsea
Age UK Lambeth
Age UK Lancashire
Age UK Leeds
Age UK Leicestershire & Rutland
Age UK Milton Keynes
Age UK Norfolk
Age UK Nottingham & Notts
Age UK Oxfordshire
Age UK Portsmouth
Age UK Redbridge
Age UK Richmond Upon Thames
Age UK Sevenoaks, Tonbridge & District
Age UK Sheffield
Age UK Solihull
Age UK South Kent & Coast
Age UK Stockport
Age UK Surrey
Age UK Teeside
Age UK Wakefield
Age UK Wandsworth
Age UK Warwickshire
Age UK West Sussex
Age UK Wiltshire
Age UK Worcester & Malvern Hills
International
Help Age International
Other Grants paid
(<£100k per recipient per year)
Total Grants payable		 Campaigns
& Research
Information &
Advice
Health &
Care
Wellbeing
Support
the
Network
International
2023 Total
Awards
£'000
£'000
£'000
£'000
£'000
£'000
£'000
-
-
-
1
874
-
875
20
-
-
-
1
874
-
875
20
-
-
4
68
42
-
114
7
-
13
-
30
142
-
185
7
-
13
4
78
71
-
166
11
-
-
-
55
70
-
125
6
-
-
11
98
49
-
158
12
-
-
6
58
42
-
106
10
-
-
11
51
41
-
103
6
-
13
2
58
40
-
113
13
-
-
-
47
167
-
214
10
-
-
-
72
149
-
221
9
-
13
-
55
42
-
110
7
-
-
-
66
40
-
106
7
-
2
6
61
91
-
160
12
-
-
2
62
79
-
143
7
-
18
11
26
48
-
103
13
-
13
6
58
39
-
116
7
-
-
6
101
71
-
178
16
-
-10
11
31
179
-
211
10
-
2
13
67
59
-
141
12
-
-
4
60
38
-
102
6
-
-
-
114
88
-
202
10
-
-
-
127
148
-
275
14
-
-
-
94
95
-
189
10
-
-
13
90
41
-
144
9
-
13
-
55
83
-
151
7
-
12
-
52
40
-
104
6
-
-
-
-
259
-
259
3
-
-
11
75
196
-
282
6
-
2
2
54
46
-
104
6
-
-
11
11
78
-
100
4
-
-
-
69
46
-
115
6
-
2
13
32
55
-
102
14
-
-
7
64
40
-
111
7
-
-
11
68
40
-
119
9
-
12
4
54
87
-
157
8
-
-
5
28
79
-
112
10
-
-
-
70
114
-
184
13
-
2
-
76
40
-
118
7
-
-
-
111
40
-
151
4
-
120
174
2,446
3,114
-
5,854
341
-
-
-
-
-
19,302
19,302
60
-
-
-
-
-
19,302
19,302
60
-
120
174
2,447
3,988
19,302
26,031
421
32
165
211
742
3,767
-
4,917
32
285
385
3,189
7,755
19,302
30,948

Included in the above grants are amounts paid out under the legacy protocol which allows Network partners a share of legacies left to Age UK where the donor is known to the partner.

95

Age UK 06825798 Notes to the financial statements

For the Year Ended 31 March 2024

28 Other recognised gains and losses

(a) Loss on disposal of subsidiary charity

The Group's subsidiary, Lottery entities were placed into voluntary liquidation on 28th March 2024. This created a loss on disposal for Age UK Charity of £1.69.

The Group's subsidiary, Age Cymru left the Group on 1st April 2023. This created a loss of £1,612,751 in the Group due to the Cymru reserves being removed from the Group. The impact on the prior year's financial statements can be seen on Note 19.

There was no loss or gain on disposal of a subsidary Charity in FY22-23.

29 Government grants

The following government grants were received in the period.
Grant provided by
Description
Agence Française de Développement
Department of Health and Social Care
Department for Transport
European Commission
EU Horizon
Her Majesty’s Prisons and Probation Service (one award)
Welsh Government
Welsh Government Department of Health and Social
Services
Welsh Government Department of Health and Social
Services
Welsh Government and Aneurin Bevin Healthboard
Welsh Government
Welsh Government
Other grants with individual values under £100k
To improve Health and Wellbeing
COVID-19 response for older people and people with
disabilities in Myanmar
Ageing Well - To increase activity in older people, reduce
frailty and help people to live independently as they get
older.
Scaling up Non Communicable Disease interventions in
South East Asia
Tackling Loneliness with Transport
Health and Wellbeing Alliance grant
Innovations in social protection for older people in urban
Kenya
Tell Me More - Support the well-being of people living in
care homes during the transitional period out of the
pandemic.
Age Alliance - Supporting Age Alliance Wales and
Engagement with Older People.
Dementia Advocacy - Delivery of advocacy to older people
living with dementia.
Older Carers (Cymru) - Developing person-centred models
to better identify and better meet the needs of older carers
and carers of people living with dementia.
HOPE Project - Helping others to participate and engage
through peer advocacy		 2024
£'000
171
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
169		 2023
£'000
266
130
547
131
342
31
228
632
145
420
172
74
126
340 3,244

96

Age UK 06825798 Notes to the financial statements

For the Year Ended 31 March 2024

30 Funder and donor disclosure

The organisations listed below have requested the following disclosures are made in the group statutory accounts regarding donations or grants they have made in the period:

The National Lottery Community Fund : Community organisation cost of living fund. The £75,000 grant is split between restricted and unrestricted.

Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust : Advice Line support for older LGBT+ veterans. The £46,849 grant is restricted.

Emanuel Hospital Charity : Information and advice for older Londoners. The £327,572 grant is restricted.

LTA Tennis Foundation : Walking Tennis Programme. The £27,271 grant is restricted.

The Department for Health and Social Care : Health & Wellbeing Alliance. The £80,000 grant is restricted.

The Seafarers' Charity : Telephone friendship calls for older Seafarers'. The grant is for the value of £27,000.

97

Age UK 06825798 Notes to the financial statements

For the Year Ended 31 March 2024

31 List of subsidiaries

Age UK has the following subsidiary charities and trading companies:

Subsidiary undertaking
Principal activities
Trading subsidiaries:
Subsidiaries of Age UK
HelpAge International UK
To raise funds for, and carry out Age UK's international charitable work
Age UK Trading CIC
To carry out trading activities to generate funds for Age UK.
AgeCo Limited
Insurance and other services for older people
Age Cymru3
Subsidiaries of AgeCo Ltd
Age Concern Funeral Services Ltd
Funeral services for older people
Non trading subsidiaries:
Subsidiaries of Age UK
Help the Aged
Residential care activities for the elderly & disabled
The Silver Line Helpline1
Age UK Local Programmes Lottery CIC2
Age UK Information and Advice Lottery CIC2
Age UK Education and Research Lottery CIC2
Sunnyside Road (Clevedon) Management Company Limited Other letting and operating of own or leased real estate
Charlton Beeches (Preseton) Management Company Limited Other letting and operating of own or leased real estate
Portway Lodge (Wells) Management Company Limited
Other letting and operating of own or leased real estate
Princes Road (Clevedon) Management Company Limited
Other letting and operating of own or leased real estate
Penarth House (Clevedon) Management Company Ltd
Other letting and operating of own or leased real estate. Incorporated 9 Dec 2023
Crosswall Trustees Limited
Other business support service activities. Incorporated on 14 June 2022.
Subsidiaries of The Silver Line Helpline
The Silver Line Helpline Enterprises Limited
Non-trading company
Subsidiaries of Age UK Trading CIC
Age Concern Holdings Ltd
Non-trading company
Age Cymru Retail Ltd
Retail sale of other second-hand goods in stores
Subsidiaries of Age Concern Holdings Ltd
Age Care and Leisure Services Ltd
Non-trading company
Age Concern Enterprises Cymru Ltd
Non-trading company
Age Concern Enterprises Ltd
Non-trading company
Age Concern Financial Partnerships Ltd
Non-trading company
Age Concern Financial Solutions Ltd
Other business support service activities not elsewhere classified
Age Concern Insurance Services Ltd
Non-trading company
Age Concern Ltd
Dormant Company
Age Concern Partnership Wales Ltd
Non-trading company
Age Concern Trading Ltd
Dormant Company
Age Concern Trust Corporation
Non-trading company
Age UK Services Ltd
Other service activities not elsewhere classified
Help the Aged (Mail Order) Ltd
Non-trading company
Help the Aged (Trading) Ltd
Non-trading company
intune Group Ltd
Non-trading company
R I A Trading Ltd
Non-trading company
Subsidiary of Age Cymru
Age Cymru Trading Limited
Wales Council on Ageing
Subsidiary of intune group Ltd
intune Financial Services Ltd
Company is dormant
intune Services Ltd
Company is dormant
Subsidiary of Help the Aged (Mail Order) Ltd
Age UK Holidays Limited
Company is dormant
HtA Solutions Ltd
Company is dormant
Non trading associates:
Associates of Age UK*
Ardentallen Ltd
Residents property management
Up to 30th November 2022, was to raise funds for and provide a dedicated
support line for older people. Dormant from 1st December 2022.
In members voluntary liquidation from 28 March 2024
In members voluntary liquidation from 28 March 2024
In members voluntary liquidation from 28 March 2024
To raise funds and carry out charitable activities within Wales. Left the
Group 1 April 2023
Other retail sale not in stores, stalls or markets. Left the Group 1st April
2023
Linked charity - also known as Age Concern Cymru. Left the Group 1st
April 2023		 31 March
2024		 31 March
2023		 Company or
Charity
registration
no.
Ownership %
100
100
100
-
100
100
100
-
-
-
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
-
-
100
100
100
100
33.3		 100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
33.3		 07897113
01102972
03156159
06837284
02804368
01263446
01147330
11335613
11335248
11372685
13354977
13355142
13355168
13362224
15340653
14171882
09190099
01102971
08010768
02716181
05744511
06776957
03819694
05260600
02035367
05425966
07471664
05522083
02547188
06838416
00893588
02444170
02489376
03063659
08011995
1128436-1
05989153
05989143
03218466
03172472
04713382

*[1] Note: The Silver Line Helpline's activities were transferred into Age UK on 1st December 2022.

98

Thank you

We’d like to thank all our donors, supporters, campaigners, and volunteers for their valued contribution. We’d also like to thank all those people who have left a gift in their will to Age UK. Their generosity will help us to help those who need us the most.

Special thanks go to the following businesses, public bodies, trusts, and foundations for their generous support.

AKO Foundation Arch Insurance (UK) Limited Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust

Barclays Bank Plc

Belstaff Bloomberg British Gas Trading Limited Centrica Christopher Laing Foundation Dignity Plc Dunelm (Soft Furnishings) Ltd E.ON Next Energy Emanuel Hospital Charity Exilarch's Foundation Gas Distribution Networks (GDNs) HSBC Julia and Hans Rausing Legal & General Lloyds Banking Group

M&G plc Mishcon de Reya Octopus Energy Rothesay Foundation Sport England Taboola Europe Limited The Eighty Eight Foundation The Eveson Trust The Innholders' Charitable Foundation The Peacock Charitable Trust The Schroder Foundation Tolkien Trust Valero Energy Ltd Vertex Foundation Vitabiotics Woodmansterne Publications Limited Worwin UK Foundation Yorkshire Building Society Zurich Community Trust

99

We’d love your support

You can help Age UK in so many ways

Donate Volunteer Fundraise Campaign

To find out more about how you can get involved with Age UK visit www.ageuk.org.uk/support

We provide expert and impartial information and advice on all areas of later life, through the Age UK Advice Line, our website, and by supporting our local partners to give face-to-face advice.

Age UK free Advice Line: 0800 169 65 65 Lines are open 8am–7pm, 365 days a year.

100